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Busch Dominant at Chicagoland

Fri 11th, July 2008

Joliet, IL (Sports Network) - Kyle Busch put on a dominating performance in the second half to win Friday night's Dollar General 300 Nationwide Series race at the Chicagoland Speedway. The No.18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver crossed the finish line 3.120 seconds ahead of Denny Hamlin.

The victory was Busch's fifth of the season and the 16th of his Nationwide career. He also gave JGR its 13th victory of the season, tying Richard Childress Racing for most owner wins in a Nationwide season, set last year.

"We had a good car in the beginning of the race, but we were just real tight," Busch said. "We made some adjustments to it...This thing just showed up and came to life all of the sudden. We got it out in front, and kinda took off there."

Busch grabbed the lead for the first time on Lap 95 and then led 101 of the final 105 circuits.

Pole sitter David Reutimann had the fast car in the early stages of the race. Reutimann led the first 53 laps and then made his first pit stop of the evening. He made his stop just before the first caution came for an incident involving Jason Leffler. After a cycle of stops had completed, Reutimann ran out in front for another 30 laps.

Jeff Burton passed Reutimann for the lead before a caution for debris. Burton, however, would give up the top spot to Brad Keselowski when Keselowski had a lightning-fast pit stop. Burton came out of pit lane 10th.

Keselowski led only one lap under green before Busch dipped below and passed him for the top spot. Busch took over in the mid-stages, building a 3.713-second lead over Reutimann by lap 125.

With 54 laps remaining, teams prepared for what they expected to be their final round of pit stops for the night. Denny Hamlin was the first driver to make his green-flag pit stop. Busch pitted for fuel and four new tires three laps later. Reutimann and Keselowski made their stops one lap after Busch.

Busch's crew once again had the 23-year-old driver out in front on Lap 154. Busch then built a nine-second lead over Hamlin with less than 30 laps to go, but Hamlin mounted a charge in the closing laps.

Hamlin, however, could not catch Busch at the end as Busch became the first NASCAR driver to win under the lights at Chicagoland.

Keselowski, Brian Vickers, and Reutimann completed the top-five.

Busch, the Sprint Cup points leader, will start on the pole for Saturday night's LifeLock.com 400 since qualifying was rained out Thursday at Chicagoland.

Tony Stewart, in the No.20 Toyota for JGR, immediately ran into trouble in the beginning when his car did not get up to speed at the drop of the green flag. Kevin Harvick hit Stewart's slow-moving car, causing damage to the front end of Harvick's No.33 Chevrolet. Stewart quickly fell from second to 11th in the field, while Harvick dropped from fourth to 14th. Harvick fell back as far as 22nd by Lap 40.

Both drivers made numerous repairs to their cars during regularly routine pit stops. Stewart managed to finish ninth, while Harvick was never a factor in the race and ended up finishing a lap down in 18th.

Series points leader Clint Bowyer finished seventh. Bowyer will take a 183- point lead over Keselowski to the next event scheduled for Saturday, July 19th at the Gateway International Raceway outside St. Louis.

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