After NASCAR increased the spacers and took some horsepower from Toyota earlier in the week, Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch answered the move by dominating Saturday night’s Nationwide race at O’Reilly Raceway Park.
“I feel that 15 horsepower cost me the pole,’’ said Busch. “What a great car and what a great team. It’s no wonder we’ve won so many races this year because the guys just come to the race track just so prepared.’‘
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader dominated the Kroger 200 at O’Reilly Raceway Park, leading 197 of 200 laps to cruise to his sixth Nationwide win of the year.
The victory makes 15 for Busch on the season, including seven in the Sprint Cup Series and two in the Craftsman Truck Series. That breaks Kevin Harvick’s record of 14 wins across all three series set in 2006.
“We wanted to come out here this weekend and sort of get a little sweet revenge on everybody,” Busch said. “It turned out that way, and it worked out in our favor.”
“It’s been a dream season, completely all around,” he said. “We’re still running and still able to win races, so that’s been the greatest fact.”
“It was just awesome. We were good right off the bat and all we had to do was tune on (the car) to make it better,” Busch said.
Asked about the change to the Toyota engine this week, Busch was quick with a reply.
“I was kind of disappointed because I feel like that 15 horsepower cost us the pole,” he said. “I really got to thank my competitors for doing the complaining they did, because we were able to have good traction control all night long (because of the loss of horsepower).
“I feel like that was important, to get off the corners a little bit better than everybody.”
Busch and Jason Leffler, the defending race winner, were upset with NASCAR’s decision about the horsepower. Both felt Busch’s win showed that there’s more to their success than cars with powerful engines.
“It’s all about the people here,” Leffler said. “I think this week, that got overlooked a little bit. People felt like we had advantages in other places. I think we’ve got a lot of advantages in a lot of places. You’re going to have a tough time taking them all away.”
“I was watching that and kind of enjoying that,” said Mike Bliss, who spun out on lap 22 but rallied to finish third. “I was hoping someone would rattle Kyle’s cage, but that’s kind of hard to do.”
Polesitter Colin Braun finished second on Saturday, and Mike Bliss moved up from 17th to finish third. Carl Edwards was three laps down early in the race, but moved to the lead lap toward the end with the help of some cautions and finished 11th.
Joey Logano, the 18-year-old who finished in the top two in his previous three Nationwide races, finished eighth.
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