Kyle Busch passed Todd Bodine for the lead on a late-race restart and then held off Johnny Sauter at the finish to win the WinStar World Casino 350K Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway for the second year in a row.
Busch, in his first year as driver and owner in the Truck Series, claimed his seventh victory in 14 starts this season. He now has 22 victories combined in NASCAR’s three national touring series in 2010.
Busch is on the brink of capturing this year’s owner’s championship in the series, as his No.18 team holds a 72-point lead over Bodine’s No.30 team with just two races to go. MiamiHerald.com
“On that last restart there I got a good jump,” Busch said. “I got a good jump and didn’t beat Todd to the line and ended up kind of being alongside him into Turn 1, and I don’t know if my lane just had a better draft or what—we pulled away down the backstretch and held on there.”
In retrospect, Bodine felt he made a mistake in choosing the outside lane for the decisive restart. Busch disagreed.
“If I was in Todd’s position, I would have taken the outside lane for the last restart, too,” he said. “When you’re out there on the outside like that, it makes your truck a lot more stable, and the guy on the inside’s at your mercy.”
Instead, everything fell Busch’s way.
“I don’t know whether I got a better push from behind, I had a better lane that we drafted, or what happened there, but he didn’t stay next to me as well as I expected him to,” Busch said. “I got clear of him, and I was like, ‘Man, this right here was fortune.’ I wasn’t expecting to be clear so quick. I figured I’d have to race him.
“[Crew chief] Eric [Phillips] tightened me up on that last stop [on Lap 123] so I’d have a little more side bite to race against him and try not to get sucked around.” NASCAR.com
Sauter had led for 31 laps before running out of fuel on lap 92.
“We had phenomenal pit stops there. We just didn’t get it full on that one stop,” Sauter said. “We weren’t anticipating running out of fuel and it kind of got us behind a little bit.”
Matt Crafton finished third, followed by Bodine and Elliott Sadler.
It is the seventh win for Busch at Texas Motor Speedway, making him the winningest driver at the track wrapping up its 14th season. He has won twice in trucks along with wins in the last five Nationwide races there, a streak he will try to extend Saturday. USA Today
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NASCAR Truck Series: WinStar World Casino 350K at Texas - Race Results
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