Busch breaks into winner's circle at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) _ Kurt Busch won't apologize for hitting Jimmy Spencer. <br><br>Busch survived the usual bumping and banging at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday and bumped Spencer out of his way

Monday, March 25th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) _ Kurt Busch won't apologize for hitting Jimmy Spencer.

Busch survived the usual bumping and banging at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday and bumped Spencer out of his way to win the Food City 500, his first career victory.

``Last year at Phoenix, he dumped us flat out. He was a lapped car, and we were racing for eighth place,'' Busch said. ``That was in my mind. He was the one that never forgets. I guess we can say I don't forget what happened in Phoenix.''

Spencer, who finished second, tucked this incident away in the back of his mind.

``When racing for victories or top fives, you have to respect the leaders,'' Spencer said. ``When you don't, it will come back to haunt you. I didn't do that to him and he shouldn't have done it to me.''

Their confrontation was just one of the many that Bristol usually produces. With its high banks, the .533-mile bullring is known for the bumping and banging that starts as soon as the race begins.

It led to 14 cautions and the usual postrace confrontations, including a pit road collision between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Robby Gordon.

The two banged each other several times on the track, and it boiled over after the race. Earnhardt made contact with Gordon after the cars came off the track, and Gordon responded by spinning him out.

``He was a moving chicane,'' Earnhardt said. ``He wouldn't get out of the way. A lap down, racing the leader with 10 laps to go. That's why it takes three or four times to get into the Winston Cup Series because he doesn't pay attention and doesn't know what he's doing.''

Gordon said the bad feelings started early in the race when Earnhardt bumped him, costing him 20 positions, and continued the rest of the way.

``I didn't quite understand why he did that so early in the race,'' Gordon said. ``And I didn't understand why after the race, he ran into me, too,'' Gordon said. ``I don't know what I did to make him mad, but hey, nobody runs into me.''

The postrace banging was similar to this race a year ago, when Tony Stewart put Jeff Gordon into a retaliatory spin on pit road following the event. Stewart drew a $10,000 fine and a long stint on probation for the act.

Both Earnhardt and Robby Gordon, as well as their car owners, were called to the NASCAR hauler to talk it over.

Busch took over the lead when he opted not to follow Earnhardt Jr. into the pits following the 13th caution, inheriting the lead with 85 laps to go. He briefly gave it up to Spencer, who moved in on Busch's bumper and muscled his way into the lead coming off Turn 4 on lap 444.

But in Turn 2 of the next lap, Busch bumped his way back into the lead. Spencer nearly lost control of his car on the contact, but saved it, although he lost a lot of ground in his bid to challenge for the lead.

But Busch, who gave Roush Racing its second win of the year, claimed he was just getting back at Spencer for a similar incident last year.

Spencer finished second, Ricky Rudd was third and was followed by Earnhardt Jr. and Bobby Labonte.

Matt Kenseth, who gave Roush its first victory this year, was sixth. Rookie Jimmie Johnson finished seventh, Jerry Nadeau _ his Hendrick Motorsports teammate _ was eighth, and Rusty Wallace and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top 10.

Busch, using a similar pit strategy to the one Elliott Sadler followed to win here a year ago, went 157 laps on his final set of tires. That gave him the lead on the restart and he only gave it up briefly to Spencer the one time.

``Everyone should have paid attention what Sadler did last year,'' Busch said. ``We knew we could go along time on the tires.''

Busch was holding on to his lead when the final yellow came out lap 478. That allowed Spencer to get up on Busch's rear bumper, but he never could catch him.

Stewart, injured in a wreck last week at Darlington, was unable to complete the race and had to turn his car over to relief driver Todd Bodine. Stewart led 74 laps of the race and was running in third when he spun out and said he couldn't go on.

Bodine started in 21st place after the switch and managed a 15th-place finish in the Pontiac.