Kurt Busch beats final rain drops at Michigan for second win of season

BROOKLYN, MICH. — Stewart-Haas Racing's Kurt Busch may just as well have steered The Ark to victory at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday, not his back-up car.

Instead, he drove his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet to the win in the rain-marred Quicken Loans 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race in the water-logged Irish Hills.

When NASCAR called the race because of foul weather at 138 laps of a scheduled 200, at a little after 6 p.m., Busch was leading Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Chevrolet) and Martin Truex Jr. (Chevrolet).

It was Busch's second victory and seventh top-10 finish in 2015 and his first multi-win season since 2011.

Busch, who crashed in practice and had to go to his backup car for the race, now has three wins and 10 top-10 finishes at MIS in 29 Cup races.

He is now 11th in series points, 150 behind leader and teammate Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet), who was leading the race late until he cut a tire and had to pit.

Harvick finished 29th.

PHOTOS: Behind the wheel with Kurt Busch

"Fantastic group effort," said Busch afterwards. "Our car kept on getting better and better. We worked the car from 24th all the way to the front. We had excellent team work, excellent pit stops. Winning in Chevy's backyard is special."

The race turned out to be an aquatic marathon that started shortly after 1 p.m. and mercifully ended under a red flag, water pouring down the main straight at MIS.

"Because of the weather, I didn't get a lot of opportunities to understand and adjust the car," said Earnhardt Jr., who drives the No. 88 AMP Energy Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports. "We just had to wait on the weather to get moved out, wait on them to dry the track. We just didn't have the restarts of the No. 41, which had the field covered. But we had great long-run speed."

Truex, who won last weekend at Pocono, drove a steady race to record his 14th top 10 finish in the first 15 races of the season.

In doing so, he became the first driver since Richard Petty in 1969 to match the King's performance.

"We had an awesome car and the team did another great job," said Truex, driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevrolet. "It was honestly a good weekend for us. I'm just proud to have my name mentioned with Richard Petty. It is pretty special. We'll keep this thing rolling."

Rain played havoc with the first 50 laps of the race, which saw three red-flag stoppages as storm cell after cell hit MIS.

Kyle Busch then smacked the outside wall in Turn 4 when his No. 18 M&Ms Crispy Toyota snapped hard right.

Busch, who won Saturday's Xfinity Series race at MIS and has only recently returned to competition after his series wreck at Daytona in February, was unhurt but was forced to drive his car to the garage for repairs.

He was credited with a 43rd-place finish.

Team Penske pair Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski finished fifth and sixth respectively in the Ford Fusions.

The weather drove fans from the stands at one point late in the race as NASCAR and MIS track officials warned spectators to take cover as torrential rain pelted the area, high winds lashed tents and campers and lightning flashed across the sky.

Brudenell writes for the Detroit Free Press. Follow him on Twitter @mikebrudenell

PHOTOS: 2015 Sprint Cup race winners

Quicken Loans 400

Sunday's results from the 2-mile Michigan International Speedway (starting position in parentheses):

1. (24) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 138 laps, 113.5 rating, 47 points, $186,125.

2. (14) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 138, 116.9, 43, $141,435.

3. (9) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 138, 117.1, 41, $137,580.

4. (12) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 138, 117.6, 41, $148,471.

5. (11) Joey Logano, Ford, 138, 93.2, 40, $140,508.

6. (3) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 138, 107.7, 39, $141,031.

7. (25) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 138, 79.9, 37, $126,331.

8. (17) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 138, 82.1, 36, $108,515.

9. (20) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 138, 71.9, 35, $132,940.

10. (32) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 138, 79.5, 34, $126,523.

11. (13) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 138, 81.7, 33, $106,015.

12. (4) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 138, 113.2, 33, $107,140.

13. (27) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 138, 70.3, 31, $116,448.

14. (22) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 138, 90.8, 0, $105,823.

15. (1) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 138, 100, 30, $110,215.

16. (19) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 138, 63.8, 29, $97,065.

17. (16) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 138, 89, 28, $116,073.

18. (23) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 138, 78.6, 26, $119,840.

19. (8) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 137, 75, 25, $131,801.

20. (7) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 137, 80.5, 24, $124,471.

21. (6) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 137, 87.4, 23, $131,771.

22. (26) Aric Almirola, Ford, 137, 65.4, 22, $123,346.

23. (31) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 137, 57.7, 21, $114,918.

24. (5) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 137, 78.9, 0, $82,560.

25. (33) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 137, 50.9, 19, $93,635.

26. (30) Sam Hornish Jr., Ford, 137, 53.2, 18, $111,630.

27. (36) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 137, 50, 17, $104,618.

28. (15) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 137, 63.7, 16, $111,924.

29. (2) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 137, 117.2, 17, $141,035.

30. (35) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 137, 44.2, 14, $85,935.

31. (29) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 137, 50.7, 0, $83,785.

32. (40) Cole Whitt, Ford, 137, 39.8, 12, $90,732.

33. (37) Brett Moffitt, Ford, 137, 40.6, 11, $82,610.

34. (39) Josh Wise, Ford, 137, 38.7, 11, $81,010.

35. (18) David Ragan, Toyota, 136, 50.4, 9, $108,059.

36. (21) Greg Biffle, Ford, 136, 39, 8, $111,823.

37. (38) Jeb Burton, Toyota, 136, 33.5, 7, $80,731.

38. (41) J.J. Yeley, Toyota, 136, 28.4, 0, $76,142.

39. (43) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 136, 28.5, 5, $72,070.

40. (42) Mike Bliss, Ford, 136, 28.4, 0, $68,070.

41. (28) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 84, 24.3, 3, $64,070.

42. (34) David Gilliland, Ford, accident, 64, 32.6, 2, $68,070.

43. (10) Kyle Busch, Toyota, accident, 52, 71, 1, $101,561.

———

Race Statistics

Average Speed of Race Winner: 116.688 mph.

Time of Race: 2 hours, 21 minutes, 55 seconds.

Margin of Victory: Under Caution.

Caution Flags: 5 for 38 laps.

Lead Changes: 17 among 11 drivers.

Lap Leaders: C.Edwards 1; K.Kahne 2; C.Edwards 3-41; J.Wise 42; K.Harvick 43-82; M.Kenseth 83-84; B.Keselowski 85; K.Larson 86-87; J.Logano 88-94; D.Patrick 95-96; K.Harvick 97-119; D.Earnhardt Jr. 120; M.Kenseth 121; B.Keselowski 122-126; C.Edwards 127; K.Larson 128-132; Ku.Busch 133-138.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Led, Laps Led): K.Harvick, 2 times for 63 laps; C.Edwards, 3 times for 41 laps; J.Logano, 1 time for 7 laps; K.Larson, 2 times for 7 laps; Ku.Busch, 1 time for 6 laps; B.Keselowski, 2 times for 6 laps; M.Kenseth, 2 times for 3 laps; D.Patrick, 1 time for 2 laps; D.Earnhardt Jr., 1 time for 1 lap; K.Kahne, 1 time for 1 lap; J.Wise, 1 time for 1 lap.

Wins: J.Johnson, 4; Ku.Busch, 2; K.Harvick, 2; D.Earnhardt Jr., 1; C.Edwards, 1; D.Hamlin, 1; M.Kenseth, 1; B.Keselowski, 1; J.Logano, 1; M.Truex Jr., 1.

Top 16 in Points: 1. K.Harvick, 576; 2. M.Truex Jr., 561; 3. J.Logano, 520; 4. D.Earnhardt Jr., 508; 5. J.Johnson, 506; 6. B.Keselowski, 480; 7. J.McMurray, 464; 8. M.Kenseth, 456; 9. K.Kahne, 447; 10. J.Gordon, 434; 11. Ku.Busch, 426; 12. P.Menard, 421; 13. D.Hamlin, 412; 14. C.Edwards, 401; 15. A.Almirola, 401; 16. R.Newman, 400.