Kurt Busch gets comeback amid brother's late agony

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kurt Busch loves his little brother Kyle, but in the stretch run of Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, all big brother was looking for was more positions, more points -- and not where his brother was, which happened to be at the front.

"I was just hoping that cars would be side-by-side because when they have that, they slow up and it creates a hole for the cars behind to catch them," Kurt Busch said on pit road after scoring maybe his most unlikely top-five finish in the last year-and-a-half. "I was hoping for side-by-side racing because that would get us towards the front."

Coke Zero 400

Unofficial Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet
2.	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet
3.	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
4.	Carl Edwards	Ford
5.	Kurt Busch	Dodge
6.	Marcos Ambrose	Toyota
7.	Brian Vickers	Toyota
8.	Matt Kenseth	Ford
9.	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet
10.	Elliott Sadler	Dodge

• Results | Laps | Photos

Unfortunately for the Busch family, Tony Stewart, got next to Kyle Busch, who moved over to block him and spun himself out in front of the field. Stewart went on to win.

"I kept it on the low side and I think I passed two or three guys in [Turns] 3 and 4 coming to the checkers," Kurt said. "And then I think it was the 18 car [Kyle] going up in smoke -- I didn't see who it was, but we got by him unscathed."

Kurt Busch actually passed two more people in the race's last 300 yards, including his brother.

"You hate to see guys hit the fence -- especially my little brother," Busch said. "It makes you worry, and I'm glad he got out OK. When you get wrecked it's tough because you're trying to go for the win and you end up rolling sevens. And you're just hoping for the guy's safety at that point."

Pat Tryson, Kurt Busch's crew chief on their No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge, could commiserate with the Busches, but he was happier about the fifth-place run that solidified his driver's position in the top five in the standings, where they've been since the fourth race of the season.

"You don't ever want to see anybody get wrecked there at the end of a race, especially somebody that's family of your driver," Tryson said. "But it was a good night for us. It could have been a lot better -- could have been a lot worse -- so all in all, we'll take it. We would have liked to have won, but we'll take fifth."

Amazingly enough, in what's been a very consistent, very competitive season for Busch and Tryson, both men are concerned about points despite the fact that they remained in fourth after Saturday night, now 313 points ahead of 13th place in the standings.

"It looks like all the guys around 13th had problems," Tryson said, "so that's the bigger picture, getting a bigger cushion between us and 13th." (Continued)