Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch dominates Nationwide race at Texas Motor Speedway
Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch celebrates in victory lane after winning Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
FORT WORTH, Texas – When a driver leads plenty of laps early in an event, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s going to continue dominating.
But when Kyle Busch took the lead from the pole on the first lap of the O’Reilly 300, it was a sign that he very well could win his third consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Busch, who had led 300 of the 400 laps contested at TMS last year, led 178 of the 200 laps Saturday on his way to his second Nationwide win of the year and the 23rd of his career.
“It wasn’t an easy day,” Busch said. “It may have looked easy, but I’m tired. I’m ready for a nap.”
Busch became the first driver to win from the pole in the 17 Nationwide Series races at TMS.
“These guys gave me a great race car to go out there and perform with,” Busch said. “At the start of the race, the thing was awesome fast. The more and more we went it got looser and looser for some reason.
“Typically you tighten up here, so it’s kind of weird. We kept adjusting on the car and making it tighter so I could get on it at the beginning of the run and keep up with those guys and be tight enough to where I could hustle the car.”
Tony Stewart, driving for Kevin Harvick Inc., charged from seventh on a restart with seven laps remaining, to second thanks to a fresh set of tires. JR Motorsports’ Brad Keselowski finished third in a backup car as he ruined his primary car in qualifying Thursday.
Roush Fenway Racing’s David Ragan and Yates Racing’s Paul Menard rounded out the top five.
Sixth through 10th were Roush Fenway’s Matt Kenseth, Phoenix Racing’s Mike Bliss, Richard Childress Racing’s Jeff Burton, Braun Racing’s David Reutimann and Penske Racing’s Justin Allgaier.
Contact with Logano following that late restart resulted in Roush Fenway’s Carl Edwards finishing 18th, but he remained the series points leader with a 38-point edge on Busch and a 146-point edge on Ragan.
“Our guys did the best they could,” Edwards said. “We didn’t have a car that could win the race but we definitely shouldn’t have ended up in the wall.
“It’s hard to lay down and just say that’s good enough. I was just racing hard and ended up in the fence.”
The Nationwide Series is the only NASCAR national touring series in action next week with a race scheduled for April 11 at Nashville Superspeedway.
