Kyle Busch Beats Stewart in Last Lap Pass for Shootout Win

Posted Sunday, February 19; Source - Track Communications

Kyle Busch (18) beat Tony Stewart by this much... (photo - Jamie Squire/Getty Images for NASCAR)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Kyle Busch used amazing driving skills to nip defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart at the finish line by a record 0.013 seconds in Saturday night's 34th annual Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway.

Busch, who was able to save the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota despite it being sideways a couple of times during the race, found himself in eighth position on the final green-white-checkered restart. With smoke coming from the back of his car, Busch and Stewart pulled away from the rest of the pack setting up a thrilling final duel for the checkered flag coming off of Turn 4.

Busch timed the slingshot move perfectly to edge Stewart at the start/finish line.

"I don't know how many times I spun out but didn't spin out," Busch exclaimed. "Amazing race. I'm glad to be standing in victory lane – starting off the year right, hopefully."

Kyle Busch recovered from spins like this not once, not twice, but three times in the 2012 edition of the Budweiser Shootout...(photo - Matthew Stockman/Getty Images for NASCAR)

"There are a lot of guys that wouldn't have caught that. He did a fantastic job with that save," Stewart said of Busch. "I'm sitting there and the green is still out. I'm like, 'Man, that's the coolest save I've seen in a long time.' "

Stewart and many of the drivers praised the big-pack racing that produced 26 lead changes (two shy of the record) among 13 drivers.

"I actually had fun racing at Daytona again which I haven't had for a while, so I'm really, really appreciative to the work that NASCAR has done in the off-season and the test session and even after the test of the changes that they made to try to make it better for us out there," Stewart said. "I had more fun as a driver tonight than what we've had in the past."

Said third-place finisher Marcos Ambrose: "What an incredible job NASCAR has done to get back to this style of racing. I think all the drivers appreciate it. It's definitely a lot more fun, more entertaining for the fans, and more in control for the drivers."

Busch took Toyota to Gatorade Victory Lane for the first time in the non-points race with the team's back-up car following an incident during practice.

"It was a fun race," Busch said. "I thought a lot about how the pack was back. There's certainly some moments when we were all pushing each other. It's a tense pack. It's not like 2000 to 2005 pack where you couldn't really bump each other, you couldn't really get to each other, you were racing around and made holes whenever you could make holes.

"It was intense. Guys pushing all the time, them pushing on you, pushing five rows deep, everybody squirrelly, the back end of the cars being real light. It was a great race from my seat, hopefully it was from everybody else's."

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE BUDWEISER SHOOTOUT RACE RESULTS

Tickets for the 54th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 26 as well as other Speedweeks 2012 events can be purchased online at www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com or by calling 1-800-PITSHOP.

If you are unable to attend in person, be sure to tune in to the Daytona 500 on FOX on Sunday, Feb. 26 at 1 p.m. ET.