Kyle Busch wins at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Kyle Busch fell a lap down midway through the race, and after racing his way back into contention, needed an awesome save to keep himself from triggering a massive crash.

“Typical Talladega,” he thought.

Only this time, the crash happened behind Busch. Instead of leaving Talladega Superspeedway with a smashed-up car, he drove into Victory Lane as the winner of the NASCAR Sprint Cup’s Aaron’s 499. The kid who couldn’t conquer Talladega finally won at the harrowing track Sunday, and in this breakout season for Busch, it was only fitting that he coasted to the victory.

“I’d like to say that I’m smarter than I look, but that’s certainly not the case,” Busch said. “Today was just due to having a great car. Getting a lap down, that was like, ‘Oh, typical Talladega’ there. But I didn’t wreck today and I was definitely happy of that, and I was greatly appreciative that I was able to win today because it’s certainly been a struggle for several years.”

Busch came back from a lap down, then survived a near wreck with Jamie McMurray for his first win at Talladega.

It was won under caution when a 12-car accident brought out a yellow flag on the last lap, freezing the field and allowing Busch to slowly make his way across the finish line -- a rarity considering his history here.

In six previous Cup races, Busch failed to finish four times and wrecked out of both events last season. His accident in last spring’s Cup race was so hard, he cracked his head-and-neck restraint.

His victory was his second Sprint Cup win of the year.

Juan Pablo Montoya finished second to match his career best on an oval since moving to NASCAR midway through 2006. Denny Hamlin, Busch’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, finished third.