Busch wins at Talladega ahead of final-lap wreck

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Superspeedway racing makes for strange bedfellows, as Kyle Busch found out Sunday in winning the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway.

With pushes from the Chevrolet of Jeff Gordon and the Dodge of Juan Montoya, Busch had his No. 18 Toyota in the lead when a wild wreck in Turn 2 on the final lap brought out the eighth and final caution of the race, freezing the field and giving Busch his first win at Talladega (watch video).

Aaron's 499

Official Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
2.	Juan Montoya	Dodge
3.	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
4.	David Ragan	Ford
5.	Brian Vickers	Toyota
6.	Travis Kvapil	Ford
7.	Casey Mears	Chevrolet
8.	Ryan Newman	Dodge
9.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
10.	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet

• Complete Results | Lap-by-Lap
• Race Video | Photo Gallery

Montoya finished second, and Denny Hamlin, Busch's teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, was third. David Ragan finished fourth, followed by Brian Vickers, as Toyotas captured the first, third and fifth spots in the running order.

"First Jeff Gordon and then Juan -- those guys behind us were just awesome," said Busch, who won for the second time this year and the sixth time in his Cup career. "We just kept blocking the way we needed to stay up front.

"I don't think I've ever finished here without wrecking, or at least, without getting torn up. ... The 42 [Montoya] was just my savior [Sunday]. He pushed me all the way to the front."

Cumulatively, Busch won for the seventh time in NASCAR's top three series this year. He has three Nationwide victories and two Craftsman Truck Series wins to go with his Cup successes. The win at Talladega also enabled him to gain ground on points leader Jeff Burton, who leads Busch by 22 points.

Busch's Toyota was strong enough to recover from a mistake on pit road. On Lap 63 of the 188-lap race, he missed his stall while attempting a green-flag pit stop and had to return to pit road for service a lap later. But Busch got a free pass as the first car a lap down after Carl Edwards' blown tire brought out the second caution of the race on Lap 116.

From that point, he surged back to the front, ultimately with help from Gordon, who faded to 19th, and Montoya.

It was the best finish of the season for Montoya, who moved into 12th place in the point standings, the first time the former open-wheel star has occupied a Chase-eligible position in the Cup standings (read more).

Montoya restarted ninth on Lap 169, after the fifth caution of the race for debris in Turn 1, and worked his way toward the front.

"I made a couple of moves to get to second, and then I managed to get on [Busch's] bumper," Montoya said. "When you can get on someone's bumper, you can push him all the way around the lap and really make up some ground."

Hamlin had one of the strongest cars in the field, and in the early stages of the race, he and teammate Tony Stewart dominated. But Stewart cut a tire and brushed the wall while leading on Lap 144 and then with 15 laps to go was a casualty of an accident that ended his day (watch video).

"I had a car that could do whatever I wanted it to," Hamlin said. "We were right there in the lead with 20 [laps] to go and made a bad move there and got shuffled back. With all the cautions [three in the final 16 laps], we could only make it back to third, but that just shows you how strong the car was."

After a caution for Bobby Labonte's solo spin in Turn 4 on Lap 180, Michael Waltrip led the field to a restart with five laps left. With help from Gordon, Busch surged past Waltrip and Jimmie Johnson, who was running second at the time, to take the lead for good at the line on Lap 184.

Notes: Dale Earnhardt Jr. led 12 times for 46 laps and finished 10th. Stewart, who finished 38th, led the most laps, 61. ... Despite racing among the leaders most of the afternoon, David Stremme was caught up in the final wreck and finished 28th. Stremme was making his first Cup start of the season, subbing for Dario Franchitti in the No. 40 Dodge. Franchitti suffered a broken ankle in Saturday's Nationwide race at Talladega (read more). ... A.J. Allmendinger, also making his first start of the season, finished 30th. ... Burton finished 12th. He has finished in the top 15 in all nine races.