Kyle Busch wins Texas Nationwide
Kyle Busch dominated on his way to his eighth Nationwide Series win of the season at Texas Motor Speedway
From sixth on the grid, the 24-year-old grabbed the lead on lap 11 from pole-sitter Matt Kenseth and went on to control the race to the end. He briefly lost the lead due to the timing of his pitstops and during a couple of restarts, but nobody had the speed to hold him off.
The Joe Gibbs driver claimed his fourth consecutive win at Texas in NASCAR's second-tier series, and his second of the weekend as well, having won Friday night in the Trucks after beating points leader Ron Hornaday with an impressive passing manoeuvre.
On Sunday, Busch will be looking at becoming the first driver in history to win all three NASCAR races in the same weekend, taking the start from fifth on the grid in the Sprint Cup series event.
"This track is fun; it's fun obviously when you have good cars off course, " Busch said. "The team did a phenomenal job for me and (crew chief) Dave (Rogers), have done a great job on the Cup side for tomorrow too, worked their butts off this weekend.
"I feel like we've got a decent car, not a great car, but we can contend tomorrow and if things fall our way we could do it."
Not only was Busch on a different league on the track, but he also dominated on pit road, where his team was fastest of all, allowing him to stay up front.
His 19th NASCAR victory of the year allows him to stretch his lead in the championship even further, and with just two races remaining, he is in position to clinch his first NASCAR title next weekend at Phoenix if he manages to finish 15th or better.
Casey Mears impressed finishing second in only his first outing for more than two years in a Nationwide Series car, replacing Jeff Burton who was initially scheduled to compete but preferred to sit out today's race after hitting the wall on Friday during Sprint Cup practice.
Jason Leffler and pole-sitter Kenseth followed, while Brad Keselowski finished fifth, narrowing the gap to 20 points to Carl Edwards in the battle for runner up honours in the championship. Kevin Harvick looked as a likely contender in the early going leading six laps, but he finished sixth in the end.
Edwards only managed a ninth-place finish, after being unable to profit much from taking new tyres during the final caution of the day with 20 laps to go.
Only 23 cars finished the race, some retiring with mechanical issue while at least nine were involved in incidents. Kasey Kahne led laps driving a Toyota for Todd Braun, but retired with suspension failure, while Joey Logano hit the wall hard after a left-rear tyre blew up on the backstretch.
Pos Driver Make Laps 1. Kyle Busch Toyota 200 2. Casey Mears Chevrolet 200 3. Jason Leffler Toyota 200 4. Matt Kenseth Ford 200 5. Brad Keselowski Chevrolet 200 6. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 200 7. Brian Vickers Toyota 200 8. David Ragan Ford 200 9. Carl Edwards Ford 200 10. Mike Bliss Toyota 200 11. James Buescher Chevrolet 200 12. Jason Keller Ford 200 13. Trevor Bayne Toyota 200 14. Scott Wimmer Chevrolet 200 15. Tony Raines Chevrolet 200 16. Brendan Gaughan Chevrolet 200 17. Kenny Wallace Chevrolet 198 18. John Wes Townley Ford 197 19. Eric McClure Ford 197 20. Kevin Conway Chevrolet 196 21. Steve Wallace Chevrolet 179 22. Michael Annett Toyota 177 23. Bobby Hillin, Jr Dodge 167 24. Joey Logano Toyota 152 25. Justin Allgaier Dodge 144 26. Robert Richardson Jr Chevrolet 138 27. Josh Wise Chevrolet 134 28. Mike Wallace Chevrolet 119 29. Michael McDowell Dodge 118 30. Kasey Kahne Toyota 112 31. Shelby Howard Chevrolet 109 32. Morgan Shepherd Chevrolet 103 33. Jeremy Clements Chevrolet 103 34. John Borneman III Ford 50 35. Danny O'Quinn Jr Chevrolet 32 36. Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 25 37. Kenny Hendrick Ford 15 38. Mark Day Chevrolet 8 39. Chase Miller Toyota 6 40. Johnny Chapman Chevrolet 4 41. Terry Cook Chevrolet 4 42. Dennis Setzer Dodge 2 43. Mark Green Chevrolet 2
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