Kyle Busch’s season benefits from bonanza of luck

By TANIA GANGULI - The Orlando Sentinel

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — It wasn’t too long ago that Jeff Gordon was collecting victories and praise, seeing the luck go his way and a championship in sight.

Gordon had four wins and seven poles this time last year at the season’s midpoint.

He hoped he hadn’t used up his luck.

This season it’s been Kyle Busch with all the good fortune. Does he dare tempt his racing fate?

“I’ve had some good times in the past couple years, but nothing that’s ever been as lucky as this,” Busch said after winning Saturday’s Coke Zero 400. “But you just never know how this deal will turn. There’s no rabbit’s foot or four-leaf clover or any of that stuff that I have stashed in my pockets anywhere, but if there was something that I knew could bring luck, I would keep it.”

At the midpoint of the season, there’s no question that Busch is the superstar of NASCAR’s first half. Gordon’s former teammate has won six of the first 18 races and leads second-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. by 182 points.

Eight races from the Chase to the championship, three Hendrick Motorsports cars, two Richard Childress Racing cars, three Roush Fenway cars, Kasey Kahne and all three Joe Gibbs Racing cars are in the top 12.

With a third-place finish, Matt Kenseth jumped four spots into ninth place, knocking Kevin Harvick out of the top 12.

“I don’t know if I’m going to make it or not,” Kenseth said. “We’re pretty sure Carl is going to make it.”

Tony Stewart, who was ill and had to leave his car midway through the race, dropped three places to 12th, just two points ahead of Harvick.

For the ones still within striking distance of the Chase — Martin Truex Jr. in 14th, David Ragan in 15th and Brian Vickers in 16th — avoiding the bad luck will be paramount.

Ragan hates talk of luck.

“Luck in motorsports, you create your own luck,” Ragan said. “If you have a loose wheel and you wreck, that’s bad luck. Well, your wheel shouldn’t have been loose.”

But for drivers like Stewart, bad luck may be the easiest explanation for a season where nothing has gone right.

“I’m scared to get in cars, planes, everything,” Stewart said. “I’m scared to walk, open doors without looking before I walk through. It’s the oddest year I think I’ve ever seen. I don’t think we have ever had a year like that.”

The latest in a season of heartbreak for the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota happened Saturday when he exited the race with flu-like symptoms and J.J. Yeley took over. This came just a week after he led the most laps in New Hampshire, but the rain came just a bit too late for Stewart to benefit. Instead, Kurt Busch cashed in on the wet weather and won the race.

Denny Hamlin, the third JGR driver, got tangled up Saturday night in a wreck late in the race and finished 26th after leading twice for six laps.

Kyle Busch knows he’s been fortunate and that his season has gone remarkably well. He knows the luck can turn away from him and toward one of his teammates in the second half of the season, as it did with Gordon last year.

The end of Gordon’s 2007 season wasn’t a disaster by any means. He won two races and three poles and finished second in the series behind Jimmie Johnson.

But after the way this season has begun for Busch, second place isn’t what he wants.

“(We’re) getting the right breaks when they mattered most,” Busch said. “Hopefully we don’t wear it out.”