Kyle Busch survived two red-flags for rain, a multitude of multicar crashes and 13 cautions before holding off Jeff Burton to win Friday night’s Dollar General 300 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, his ninth Nationwide Series win of the season.
The win is also his 20th of the year in NASCAR’s top three series, Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Trucks. Busch already has eight Cup wins and three in Trucks this season and could add to his Cup total in Saturday night’s Bank of America 500.
“We’ve had a lot of phenomenal race cars this season. How many times do you get things like this?” said Busch. “It’s definitely good to be back in Victory Lane, especially at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. It’s one of my favorite tracks.”
“I could see Burton coming close to my rear bumper and he had the momentum and I wasn’t going to let him have the momentum on the restarts because then he’d go low and pass me going into (Turn) 1,” Busch said.
“I waited until he got to my rear bumper and then I went. He had to stop and I went. That’s what jumbled up the field back there. I apologize to those guys back there, but I have a race to win, too.”
Busch pulled away from Jeff Burton on a restart with three laps to go, despite taking just two tires on his final pit stop. Burton held on to finish second and Brian Vickers was third.
Points leader Clint Bowyer finished fourth and Carl Edwards was fifth.
But a finish well after midnight didn’t affect Busch, who completed a Nationwide sweep at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, and softened some of his disappointment from his recent weeks in the Sprint Cup.
Busch hasn’t finished better than 15th since the season-ending Chase began, dropping him to 11th in the standings behind leader Jimmie Johnson.
But in a field that included several Cup veterans and inexperienced drivers, nobody could challenge Busch.
Johnson, the Sprint Cup points leader with five victories here in NASCAR’s top series, remained winless in Nationwide races at the track. Fighting a loose car, Johnson hit the wall with 83 laps left, ending his chances.
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