Busch nabs second win of season

The Associated Press

FONTANA, Calif. -- Kurt Busch became the first two-time Winston Cup winner of the season Sunday, passing Jamie McMurray 12 laps from the end of the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway.

The 24-year-old "Young Gun" regained the form he showed late in the 2002 season, when he won three of the last five races.

Since winning last month at Bristol, Busch had slumped a bit, finishing ninth in Texas, 19th in Talladega and 28th in Martinsville. But his win Sunday on the 2-mile California oval gave the youngster five wins and three runner-up finishes in his last 15 starts.

"We went on a little slide. No biggie," Busch said of the previous three races. "We just struggled a little bit. Today, we put together a great effort."

Bobby Labonte got the runner-up spot by a few feet but crossed the final line 2.294-seconds -- about 20 car-lengths -- behind Busch's Roush Racing Ford.

Rusty Wallace was third, with Bill Elliott fourth and McMurray fifth.

Busch, who finished second to Jimmie Johnson here last year, said: "This makes up for what we did last year. We came up a bit shy.

"This was just an all-out effort by our team. Every time I came in (for pits stops), we picked up spots."

The winner, who now has six wins in his career, averaged 140.111 mph.

Tony Stewart, the defending Winston Cup champion, led 100 of the first 128 laps before driving slowly to the garage with a broken rod in his engine.