* Kyle Busch won the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway. Busch started ninth in the race. He scored his 10th-career series victory in 132 races. He remained first in the standings with an unofficial points lead of 182 points over second-place Dale Earnhardt Jr., the largest points lead of the season. It was his sixth series victory in 2008, the most among all drivers. It was his first victory in eight races at Daytona and was his second career restrictor-plate win. He also won Talladega in April. Busch became the sixth different race winner in the last six races at Daytona. Busch scored his fourth top-5 finish in the last five races at Daytona. He led 31 of the 162 laps raced including the final seven. Busch’s last win was at Infineon two races ago. * Toyota scored its seventh victory in 2008. Dodge and Chevrolet each have four while Ford has three. * This was Joe Gibbs Racing’s fourth series victory at Daytona. Gibbs Racing has seven wins in 2008, the most of any team. * 15 of the 18 races in 2008 have been won from a top-10 starting position. The only three races in 2008 that were not won from a top-10 starting position were at Richmond when Clint Bowyer won from the 31st starting position, at Infineon with Kyle Busch winning from 30th and New Hampshire where Kurt Busch started 26th. * Carl Edwards finished second, scoring his eighth top-10 finish in the last nine races. He remained fourth in the standings. * Matt Kenseth finished third, posting his seventh top-10 finish in his last eight races. * Kenseth climbed from 13th to ninth in the points standings, his highest points position in 2008. He now is 23 points ahead of 13th-place Kevin Harvick. Kenseth ranked 22nd eight races ago after Richmond. * A mere 34 points separate eighth-place Kasey Kahne from 13th-place Harvick with eight races remaining in the race to the 12-driver Chase. * Harvick is just two points behind 12th-place Tony Stewart. * Martin Truex Jr. is 14th, 88 points behind 12th-place Stewart. * Kurt Busch finished fourth, posting his second top-5 finish in as many weeks. He only has four top-10 finishes this season. * David Ragan finished fifth, posting his second top-five restrictor-plate finish this season. He finished fourth at Talladega in April. * Robby Gordon (sixth) posted his best finish of the season. It was his best finish since he finished fifth at Watkins Glen last August. * Patrick Carpentier (14th) posted his career-best finish. * Pole winner Paul Menard led 19 laps in the s race. He had led just eight laps in his previous 56 career races. * Stewart became ill and did a driver change on Lap 73, being replaced by J.J. Yeley. Stewart was running ninth prior to the switch and Yeley restarted 33rd still on the lead lap. * Winner Kyle Busch had a “steering problem” on Lap 82 dropping from third to 37th which actually was the result of contact with teammate Denny Hamlin. * Jeff Burton spun on Lap 123 while running 11th and dropped to 36th, the last car on the lead lap and somehow never touched anyone as he spun down. He crashed again on Lap 139. Burton dropped from second to third in the points standings. Burton ended a streak of 23 straight top-15 finishes since Lowe’s last October. * David Reutimann got the “free pass” — earning his way up a lap — five times tying the all-time record for the most free passes in a race set by Kyle Busch at Watkins Glen in 2006. * A last-lap crash ended the race under caution. * This was the sixth green-white-checkered finish in 2008.(ESPN.com)(7-7-2008)
