Kyle Busch entered Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 with a lot of things in his favor. He had taken over the Sprint Cup points lead the week before by winning at Kentucky and won his 100th NASCAR race a day earlier when he won Saturday's Nationwide race at New Hampshire.
But oh how things change quickly in motorsports.
Busch lost a tire and slammed into the wall in turn four on lap 76. He was trailing Dale Earnhardt Jr. when the car suddenly veered to the wall in the middle of the corner.
While Busch had made contact with Junior (and others) before his crash, Busch and Goodyear both said a melted bead on the right front caused the tire failure. Busch finished 36th.
The crash dropped Busch to fifth in the points standings, 20 points behind Carl Edwards and marked the third consecutive week that the points lead has changed hands.
At Daytona, Kevin Harvick took over the points lead from Edwards after Edwards crashed. Last week at Kentucky, Harvick finished 16th, allowing Busch to jump to the point by four over Edwards and again proving that leading the 2011 points is a fragile position.
Over the first 19 races, five different drivers (Busch, Kurt Busch, Edwards, Harvick and Tony Stewart) have led the points standings and the lead has changed hands 10 times.
Does that bode well for the Chase? We'll see.
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