Kyle Busch notches 20th NASCAR win in 2008

NNS Recap: Kyle Busch Adds To Impressive Season Win Total

Kyle Busch celebrates winning the Dollar General 300 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. (Photo Credit: CIA STOCK PHOTO)

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

Kyle Busch’s staggering numbers just got better.

With a dominating performance in Friday night’s rain-interrupted Dollar General 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race—the type of run that’s become commonplace—Busch drove his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to victory by .662 seconds over Jeff Burton.

Busch, who led 137 of 200 laps, pulled away after a restart with three laps left. The victory was his ninth in the series this year, the 20th of his career, and his 20th in NASCAR’s top three series combined this year.

Former series champion Brian Vickers ran third in a backup car after crashing during qualifying earlier in the day. Series points leader Clint Bowyer was fourth, followed by reigning series champion Carl Edwards. The margin between Bowyer and second-place finisher Edwards remained at 196 points because Edwards led a lap—worth a five-point bonus—and Bowyer didn’t.

Kevin Harvick, Kelly Bires, Brad Keselowski, polesitter Jamie McMurray and Mike Wallace completed the top 10.

“We’ve had a lot of phenomenal racecars this year,” said Busch, who started 16th and quickly worked his way to the front. “It’s just been one of those phenomenal seasons for us on the Nationwide side. You’ve just got to enjoy it while you can.”

For Burton, Friday’s race was his final start in the series this year, and he leaves without a victory.

“To their credit, they’ve been doing a great job, and Kyle’s been driving the hell out of it,” Burton said of the Gibbs effort this year.

Several drivers took issue with Busch’s approach to late-race restarts, where he appeared to slow and stacked up the field behind him. It was a wreck on a restart on Lap 194 that caused the 13th and final caution—one short of the track record—and set up the three-lap sprint to the finish.

Notes: Kasey Kahne provided a moment of levity during the second rain delay, when he momentarily forgot one of the Unilever brands sponsoring his Dodge. Kahne got “Ragu” right but couldn’t come up with “Hellman’s” until he read the name on the sleeve of his firesuit. … Edwards and Harvick scuffled in the garage on Thursday, but they didn’t take their issues onto the track. Early in Friday night’s race, they contested the fourth position side-by-side for four laps—without incident. … Justin Allgaier was impressive in his series debut, before Steve Wallace’s spinning Chevrolet clipped Allgaier’s No. 12 Penske Dodge on Lap 125. Hard contact with the frontstretch wall ended Allgaier’s race and dropped him to 34th at the finish.