NASCAR racing means never having to say you're sorry? Not...so Kyle Busch apologizes...

  
Kyle Busch gets some pit work Sunday at Loudon (Photo: Toyota Motorsports)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   LOUDON, N.H.
   Kyle Busch is apologizing for Sunday's big crash, which put Lenox 301 race contender Martin Truex Jr. out of the race and in a hot mood – Truex climbed from his wrecked car and waved his helmet angrily at Busch.
   The incident occurred on a restart when Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun his tires at the green, failing to get traction. Truex, right behind, tried to move to the inside, while Busch tried to go to the outside. However Busch bumped Truex.
   It was the most dramatic example of the action that NASCAR's new double-file restart rule can create.
   "I have to apologize to all those guys," Busch said.  "We got bottled up in turn one, especially Martin and Jeff Burton and those guys. Dale Jr.  spun his tires on the restart, I went to choose a lane, went to the middle, and Juan Pablo Montoya and I got together a little bit. That pinched me with Martin, and I spun Martin out, and it was just mayhem from there. 
   "I hate it for all those guys because I know they've got chase contentions too. 
    "We were just battling for every spot out there. 
    "Restarts are hectic, man.  Everybody is fighting for every inch that's out there, because it's so hard to pass with these cars. 
   "If you can get it done right now (on a restart), then you can single-file out for a while. The sooner you can get everything done, the quicker, the better."
   Busch wound up seventh in the rain-shortened event. Joey Logano and two others just ahead of Busch opted not to make a final schedule stop for gas with the leaders, and Logano pulled off the upset win.
   "We'll take what we got here with the rain," Busch said. "We were watching it most of the race. 
   "We didn't know when it was coming, but it was always here or close.
    "It hurt our chances for a good top-five, or even maybe a top-four. Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch were right there (the class of the field), but our car was good all day.  We were solid. We weren't great."
    Busch has been in something of a slump since winning Richmond in May, but he's still easily in the run for the playoffs, eighth in the Sprint Cup standings. Teammate Denny Hamlin, despite a winless streak, sits sixth; Logano, in his rookie season, with just 20 Cup races under his belt, is an impressive 21st.
   

   
A pensive Kyle Busch (Photo: Toyota Motorsports)