Surging to the front after a restart with eight laps left in Friday night’s Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway, Kyle Busch overcame a potentially devastating penalty with 50 laps remaining to post his second Nationwide Series win of the year and the 32nd of his career, third most all-time.
Busch restarted 10th on Lap 193 of 200 at the 1-mile track. By Lap 195 he had gained second position, and on Lap 196 he passed eventual third-place finisher Brad Keselowski for the lead. NASCAR.com
Busch, the 2009 Nationwide Series champion, was black-flagged for jumping a restart on lap 144 when he ran second to leader Brad Keselowski. After serving his pass-through penalty on pit road, he fell to 19th with 50 laps remaining.
“This car was pretty awesome tonight; it was super fast,” said Busch, who led a race-high 126 laps. “Hopefully that was an exciting win for the fans. I don’t know how we could have made it any better of a show right there.”
Busch led for a restart on lap 137, but did not get a good enough start and therefore triggered a 10-car pileup midway through the pack when the field got jumbled up. Casey Mears, Colin Braun, Landon Cassill and Trevor Bayne were among those involved in the incident, which forced NASCAR to halt the 200-lap race for nearly 10 minutes due to track clean-up efforts.
Keselowski pulled ahead of Busch when the yellow flag was displayed, and NASCAR placed Keselowski in the lead. Busch’s team argued the decision, but NASCAR explained to them that he failed to restart in the proper designated area.
When the race resumed after the multi-car crash, Busch jumped too soon on the restart and therefore received his penalty.
“All I know is that I paid NASCAR back by winning,” Busch added. MiamiHerald.com
Busch passed Keselowski, the series’ new points leader, with five laps to go and drove on for the win while Kevin Harvick edged Keselowski for runner-up honors.
“I had a shot at winning the race,’’ said Keselowski. “We just couldn’t hold on to the speed in long runs.’‘
Busch led a race-best 129 laps and Keselowski led 56, but his third-place finish was enough to pass Carl Edwards for the points lead. AHN
Brendan Gaughan ran fourth and Greg Biffle fifth. Polesitter Carl Edwards, Paul Menard, Scott Lagasse Jr., Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Joey Logano completed the top 10.
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NASCAR Nationwide Series: Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix - Race Results
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