Busch wins Tech-Net 300

Kyle Busch was two laps down, almost three. But he never gave up. The self-proclaimed “Old Kyle” might have packed it in, but this is the new Busch. After falling nearly three laps behind in the early going because of a pit road penalty, Busch came over the radio and said of still winning the race, “I’ve never done this before. Let’s do it.”

Busch proceeded to plow through the field on the way to his fourth win in his last five tries on the Nationwide Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Tech-Net Auto Service 300. That fifth time, Busch finished second to Mike Bliss.

"We don't like to make them too easy I guess," Busch said following the win. "It's a testament to this team and these guys and Jason Ratcliff. They gave me a good piece today."

Busch held off Brad Keselowski and several late restarts for the 35th win of his Nationwide Series career. The win was the 50th of Busch’s career in a Toyota across all three of NASCAR’s series’. The win also moved Busch within one point of Keselowski for the series points lead; however Busch declared this week that he won’t defend his title so he can focus on the Sprint Cup Series. Busch now has six wins in 14 tries at the 1.5 mile oval and is tied with Mark Martin with six wins at CMS.

Keselowski posted his fifth top-10 finish in eight races at Charlotte and 11th top-10 in 2010.

"It was a great day. We led a bunch of laps at the start and there towards the end," Keselowski said. "A great day for us here at Charlotte. If we would have had one more lap, we would have had a shot at it."

Joey Logano, who entered Saturday’s race eighth in points, finished third. It was his second top-10 in four career races at CMS.

I wish we could have turned it up just a little bit and would have had at leas something for him (Busch)," Logano said. "We thought two tires was going to make the difference there at the end. We were sitting in good position, just not fast enough."

Carl Edwards started on the pole but had a mediocre day on the way to a ninth-place finish while second place starter Trevor Bayne finished 17th.

The Nationwide Series heads to Nashville, TN next weekend for the Federated Auto Parts 300.


Photo courtesy of Wilson Herlong