Joe Gibbs Driven

Redemption truly couldn’t have come much sooner or sweeter for the driver who was eliminated from NASCAR’s biggest race when he was caught up in a melee triggered when Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brian Vickers collided on the backstretch.

Busch had led a race-high 88 laps and appeared poised to challenge for NASCAR’s premier event trophy before circumstances dealt a different outcome.

Sunday’s showdown featured a much happier ending.

“We didn't let Daytona haunt us,” Busch said. “We went to California [the next weekend], ran a smart race and finished third. We came here, ran a smart race.

“We won the race. We weren't the best car at either place, but we were the best car in Daytona. I felt like and we missed out there. This could have been a 1-3-1 season thus far.”

Not that the Las Vegas weekend was a total joy ride for the 23-year-old, who kissed the track’s start/finish line in an unscripted display of emotion after emerging from his winning machine.

Before the first practice ended on Friday, Busch knew he was going to have his work cut out for him because of an engine change that forced him to start at the rear of the field even after winning the pole later in the day. But it didn’t stop Busch from marching to the front, where he spent 51 laps, including the final 17.

As the final laps ticked away and Busch realized that a win was well within his grasp, the typically unflappable driver experienced an atypical emotion inside the race car: He found himself growing nervous.

“I think it was just the hometown, just the nerves of winning here, not being able to relax any,” said Busch, who claimed his 13th career checkered in NASCAR’s top series but first in six Vegas starts. “The last time I had that [feeling] was I think the first COT win at Bristol [in 2007]. I was a little nervous on that one. My first win [at California in 2005] was crazy. I mean, that thing, I was just not knowing what was going on. I didn't really know what was happening on the first win. [I] wasn't able to really cherish it a whole lot because I was so nervous on that whole thing.

“Here today, it's pretty cool. [It’s] probably what it would feel like to win the Daytona 500, come off of Turn 4, leading the race, knowing you're having a shot at taking the checkered first.”

Besides the emotions of winning in his hometown, the victory perhaps more importantly served notice that Busch has fully recovered from his disappointing run in last year’s Chase For The Sprint Cup.

Entering that 10-race, championship-determining stretch, he was the points leader, thanks to a series-high eight wins in the 26-race regular season. Once the Chase started, he was hardly a factor as he slipped all the way to 10th in the final standings after being shut out of victory lane in NASCAR’s playoff.

With his Vegas triumph, Busch put to bed a 16-race winless streak in Cup that started following his victory at Watkins Glen last August.

JGR President J.D. Gibbs called Busch’s win from the rear of the field at Vegas, “a great foundation for the rest of the year.”

The driver – who moved up 12 spots to sixth in the standings on Sunday - seems to concur.

“It's unfortunate we weren't able to capitalize on our great season into the Chase and run into the Chase the way we wanted to,” Busch said of 2008. “Hopefully we can build that back up here. I feel we've done a great job of doing that since Daytona.”