Busch dominates Texas Nationwide

The driver nicknamed 'Rowdy' claimed his twenty-first success of the season in NASCAR's national series in very dominant fashion. He claimed the lead as early as lap 23 and stayed up front for nearly the rest of the way, also giving Toyota their twentieth win of the year in the second-tier series.

Busch has now led 300 out of 400 laps contested this year in the Nationwide Series at Texas Motor Speedway, where he had already won back in April.

Reigning champion Carl Edwards closed on Busch in the closing stages following a caution with eight laps to go. The reigning champion ran out of laps to make his tyre strategy work as he had taken on a full new set at his last stop while Busch had only two new tyres.

"That was it, my tongue was hanging out," said Busch about the closing laps. "Phenomenal racecar and a great job by the team. We had a stretch there where we got a little bit loose, made some adjustments on it and got it back to where it was handling really well.

"Carl of course had a great car too but had tyres there at the end. Caught up to us a little bit but man, fortunately for us we were able to hang on there. This is a record-setting day for me."

As a way to commemorate his achievement and as a mark of respect to Sam Ard, Busch will donate US $100,000 to the 1983 and 1984 Nationwide champion.

Edwards lamented not having won the race and taken some extra points, as he still seeks to defend his title.

His second place allowed him to close a few points on Clint Bowyer once again, but with the RCR driver finishing sixth he only narrowed the gap down to 91 points with two races remaining.

"That's as hard as I could drive right there," Edwards said. "Congratulations to the No.18 team and Kyle. They were able to run fast all day. We did the right thing I guess by taking those four tyres. I just didn't have enough time to get another two laps because (the fight) would've been on. That was all I could do. I was barely lifting.

"It didn't work out there in the end so that we could get the win but we closed 25 points (on Bowyer) I guess and that's all we did today. We've just got to go to Phoenix and do more."

Mark Martin finished third driving JR Motorsports' No.5 car, jumping up four places on the last stop after taking only two tyres, as did Busch. He made his strategy work for him, and also benefited from the battle for fourth that unfolded behind him in the closing laps.

"I'm proud of this team and this was a preview of next year here," said Martin, who will drive the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy in the Sprint Cup series next year, replacing Casey Mears.

Joey Logano held off David Ragan in the close battle for fourth place with Bowyer following in sixth. All of them went for four tyres on their last stop but their own fight allowed Martin to easily stay ahead of them.

Juan Pablo Montoya made his first Nationwide Series start of the season but after dropping a lap down early on and spinning out of Turn 4 after Denny Hamlin tapped the left rear of his car, he could only manage to finish fifteenth as the first car not on the lead lap.

Pos  Driver                Car        Laps
 1.  Kyle Busch            Toyota     200
 2.  Carl Edwards          Ford       200
 3.  Mark Martin           Chevrolet  200
 4.  Joey Logano           Toyota     200
 5.  David Ragan           Ford       200
 6.  Clint Bowyer          Chevrolet  200
 7.  Brad Keselowski       Chevrolet  200
 8.  David Reutimann       Toyota     200
 9.  Marcos Ambrose        Ford       200
10.  David Stremme         Chevrolet  200
11.  Josh Wise             Toyota     200
12.  Mike Wallace          Toyota     200
13.  Scott Wimmer          Chevrolet  200
14.  Denny Hamlin          Toyota     200
15.  Juan Montoya          Dodge      199
16.  Bobby Hamilton Jr     Ford       199
17.  Jason Leffler         Toyota     198
18.  Stephen Leicht        Chevrolet  198
19.  Jason Keller          Ford       198
20.  Mark Green            Chevrolet  198
21.  Justin Allgaier       Dodge      198
22.  Kelly Bires           Ford       197
23.  Chase Miller          Dodge      197
24.  Stanton Barrett       Chevrolet  197
25.  Scott Lagasse Jr      Chevrolet  196
26.  Kenny Wallace         Chevrolet  196
27.  Mike Bliss            Chevrolet  196
28.  Steve Wallace         Chevrolet  195
29.  Kevin Harvick         Chevrolet  194
30.  Marc Davis            Dodge      194
31.  DJ Kennington         Dodge      194
32.  Eric McClure          Chevrolet  193
33.  Danny Efland          Chevrolet  191
34.  Derrike Cope          Chevrolet  178
35.  Jamie McMurray        Ford       175
36.  Robert Richardson Jr  Chevrolet  77
37.  Brian Vickers         Toyota     52
38.  Donnie Neuenberger    Chevrolet  43
39.  Johnny Chapman        Chevrolet  11
40.  Brandon Whitt         Ford       9
41.  Kevin Lepage          Dodge      8
42.  Danny O'Quinn Jr      Ford       5
43.  Kertus Davis          Chevrolet  4