Busch

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Kurt Busch sat alone in his car, too emotionally drained to hop out and enjoy another Bristol Motor Speedway victory.

He'd been punched in the face by Jimmy Spencer, criticized by his fellow competitors for his role in the feud and vilified by fans who believed the brash 25-year-old driver had it all coming to him.

Only after winning the Sharpie 500 on Saturday night was Busch finally contrite.

"Obviously there's so many things I would have done differently, I don't know where to start," Busch said. "There's some work to be done with building the trust back (of my competitors). But all this criticism, I just have to embrace it with dignity and pride."

Busch avoided any post-race punches, but was in the middle of the usual bumping and banging en route to his fourth victory of the year, second this year at Bristol and third in the last four races on the .533-mile bullring.

Busch kept his head held high amid a flood of criticism from his competitors, raucous booing from the fans -- and of course, the chipped tooth and swollen nose Spencer gave him.

But it didn't come without controversy.

Busch spun-out Sterling Marlin midway through the race as he tried to pass Marlin for second place, and knew immediately it didn't help his cause.

"I look like an idiot again," he sighed.

Maybe so, but it didn't really matter how he looked once he got to Victory Lane, even though his attempt to apologize to Marlin was drowned out by boos.

	Busch has four Cup wins this season.

"I really didn't mean to do it," he said later. "I guess I have to go get a six-pack of Coors Light and go hang out with Sterling."

Busch didn't celebrate with the usual doughnuts, instead simply driving the No. 97 Ford to Victory Lane, few smiles on his face.

"This is by far the biggest win, this beats all of my wins," Busch said. "It is so sweet to come here with all of the things that dragged me down to get here."

Kevin Harvick finished second in a Chevrolet, never able to challenge Busch after he passed him for the lead 120 laps from the finish.

"I hate losing to Rubberhead," Harvick said, not bothering to mask his disdain for Busch.

Rookie Jamie McMurray was third in a Dodge, Winston Cup points leader Matt Kenseth was fourth in a Ford and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top five in a Chevrolet.

Busch came to Bristol as Public Enemy No. 1, somehow becoming the villain in his spat with Spencer.

The feud started here in April 2002, when Busch bumped his way past Spencer for his first career victory. There have been other skirmishes since, and it blew up last week when Busch intentionally tried to flatten Spencer's fender during the race.

Spencer then punched him in the face as Busch sat in his car. Spencer was suspended from Saturday night's race and Busch was placed on probation.

Busch was greeted by "Free Jimmy" T-shirts when he got to Bristol, and a wave of criticism from his fellow competitors.

"He's a cocky, arrogant, punk," Harvick said after the race. "He just has a really, really bad attitude. But he can wheel a race car."

Busch admitted he's got a lot of work to do in the garage area. And car owner Jack Roush said each day is still a learning experience for the third-year driver.

"Everytime something has happened that he hasn't thought his way through, it's probably a jump ball and he doesn't know which way to take it," Roush said. "He's becoming wiser day by day and we're just working our way though it. Kurt is an incredible talent and I'm proud he made it through this week."

Not without adding Marlin to his growing list of enemies. Marlin was making a strong bid for his first win of the season -- and first ever on his home track -- when Busch spun him out as he tried to pass him for second place.

"Just a bonehead move," Marlin said. "I don't guess Spencer got him hard enough."

Busch knew he was under scrutiny.

"Nobody is going to cut me a break tonight, tell him `I'm sorry,' " Busch quickly radioed as he slid past the spinning Marlin.

But NASCAR still warned him that he was under careful observation, and if anything else happened the rest of the night, he would be penalized.

"You're still on probation, Kurt, so we need to watch our Ps and Qs until they end," crew chief Jimmy Fenning said.

Busch did, cleanly passing Harvick shortly after and hanging on for the win.

"It was a clean pass, I think the only thing I saw was a little blood dripping out of his nose as he drove on by," Harvick said.

Kenseth, as usual, salvaged numerous close calls with disaster by registering his 19th top 10 of the season. He stretched his lead in the standings to a seemingly insurmountable 351 points over Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Jeff Gordon, who came into the event third in the standings, was the defending race winner, and started from the pole, likely had his shot at ever catching Kenseth wiped out when he wrecked with just over 50 laps to go.

He finished 24th and is now 532 points out and fifth in the standings.