Kyle Busch holds off Carl Edwards to win Nationwide race at ORP
Kyle Busch celebrates the victory in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race Saturday night at O'Reilly Raceway Park. // Tom Pennington, Getty Images for NASCAR
INDIANAPOLIS – This time, there was no controversial finish.
For the second consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series race, Carl Edwards went side-by-side for the lead on the final lap. But Saturday night at O'Reilly Raceway Park, Kyle Busch held Edwards off to win the Kroger 200 at the 0.686-mile track for his eighth victory of the 2010 season.
Last week at Gateway International Raceway, Edwards dumped Brad Keselowski coming to the checkered flag, triggering a multicar accident and forcing NASCAR to penalize both drivers.
This time, Edwards raced Busch cleanly, and Busch grabbed his 38th career Nationwide Series victory, second only to Mark Martin on the all-time win list. Martin has 48 wins in the series.
Joe Gibbs Racing's Busch said the thought of Edwards roughing him up for the lead on the green-white-checkered did enter his mind, and he did all he could to avoid trouble.
"You're so vulnerable running the top side like you do here that people can dive-bomb you on the bottom and slide up into you," Busch said. "I knew it was there, but if I could just keep enough momentum and just keep my car rolling, then I felt like any time he'd lay a bumper to me, he'd get sideways, too. … Carl was right there. He could've used me up more than he did, but it could've cost us both time instead of him just being able to get by."
As it turned out, Edwards, who lost 60 points and is on probation for the rest of the season as a result of last week's actions, wasn't about to put the leader in jeopardy this week.
"I wasn't going to move Kyle out of the way," Edwards said. "I inadvertently got into him just a little off of (Turn) 4 one time. Fortunately, it didn't cause damage to either of our cars. But, no, I couldn't move him out of the way. We've raced really well together. … It seems like we've really raced well together the last couple years, and I enjoy that."
Edwards and some others on the lead lap pitted for fresh tires on lap 162, with Edwards restarting 11th with 28 laps to go. Edwards sliced through the top 10 to get to second, and a caution came out with six laps to go.
"I thought it was an opportunity, but [Busch] got me on the restart. His tires were 30 laps older, and somehow he was able go as fast as he was going," Edwards said. "I think if we didn't get the caution, it was going to be really interesting with lapped traffic. But my hat's off to those guys.
"We didn't have any chance of winning that race without those new tires."
Busch had a choice and he opted to stay out and was able to hold on for the win.
"It was good, hard, clean racing," said Busch, who led four times for 144 of the 201 laps. "That's what happens when you race guys cleanly over time and race each other with respect—you get respect back."
JR Motorsports' Aric Almirola finished third, but his left front shock wouldn't rebound in postrace inspection and JRM faces potential penalties. Polesitter Trevor Bayne (Diamond-Waltrip Racing) fourth and Reed Sorenson (Braun Racing) fifth.
Keselowski was eighth and has a 205-point lead on Edwards.
