Kyle Busch Cruises To Fifth Nationwide Victory
Jul 12, 2008
CIA Stock Photo, Inc.
The points leader with six victories in the Sprint Cup Series, Busch won for the fifth time in the Nationwide Series.
Busch did his customary bow to the crowd, which is becoming a weekly tradition as he has dominated this season. He has won 13 races, spanning all three of NASCAR’s top series.
“Happy to be here and happy to be in Victory Lane again. This is awesome,” Busch said.
“You go to the race track every week thinking you’ll be a contender. You go at least thinking you got a shot at winning,” Busch said. “You keep coming up with ideas. ... From there you go into the race and try to make what you can out of the race.”
That’s what Busch pointed to Friday night, a pit stop just before the halfway mark that helped him eventually take over the lead.
“We made some good calls on adjustments on pit road and the thing came to life,” Busch said. “We got it out front and kind of took off there.”
Busch grabbed the lead on the 95th lap in his No. 18 Toyota, held it until a pit stop on the 149th and then regained it five laps later for the remainder of the 200-lap race on the 1.5-mile track.
Denny Hamlin, who started in 41st position, raced his way to a runner-up finish.
Hamlin started the race from the rear of the field on an owner points provisional, because a mechanical problem during qualifying forced the team to make unauthorized repairs under impound. By the end of the race, Hamlin had perhaps the fastest car on the track.
“We really ran that 18 down on that last run,” Hamlin said. “He just got too far ahead, and we couldn’t overcome the track position.”
Brad Keselowski, second in the series championship standings, ran third and trimmed Clint Bowyer’s points lead to 183. Brian Vickers was fourth, followed by pole-sitter David Reutimann, Greg Biffle, Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Stewart and rookie Landon Cassill.
