Kyle Busch wins 6th Nationwide race at Fontana
Mar. 23, 2013
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
FONTANA, Calif. -- Those who know the history of the Royal Purple 300 also know that Kyle Busch's victory Saturday
at Auto Club Speedway was all but a foregone conclusion.
Busch
finished .834 seconds ahead of Nationwide Series leader Sam Hornish Jr.
to claim his sixth win at the two-mile
track and the ninth straight for Joe Gibbs Racing, extending the record
for consecutive victories for a Nationwide car owner at a single
speedway.
With
his third trip to Victory Lane in five starts this season, Busch also
extended his own record for career wins
in the series, pushing that number to 54. The six wins at a single
track ties his personal best; Busch also has six NNS victories at
Charlotte.
After the race, Busch seemed just as cognizant of JGR's failure to win a Sprint Cup event at Fontana as he was elated
at keeping the Nationwide streak alive.
"I
think it's pretty cool that you can see a team go to a race track and
dominate like that in a series," Busch said,
"although it's really, really awkward, because we've got nine in a row
here in the Nationwide Series, and JGR has yet to win a Cup race here.
"That's quite an odd stat, but I know (polesitter) Denny Hamlin is really good here for (Sunday's Auto Club 400 Cup
race). And I think we're OK for (Sunday), too, so hopefully we can change that."
Regan Smith rallied from a lap down -- the result of an early flat tire -- to claim third, with Parker Kligerman running
fourth in a Toyota owned by Busch. Austin Dillon came home fifth, followed by rookie Kyle Larson.
Elliott Sadler, Brian Scott, Trevor Bayne and rookie Kevin Swindell completed the top 10.
Hornish led by more than a half second over Busch when Jason White's spin through the frontstretch grass caused the
fourth caution of the afternoon on Lap 110.
Brad
Keselowski stayed on the track under the caution and led Hornish and
Busch (who took fuel only under the yellow)
to the green flag on Lap 116. Before the cars reached Turn 1, however,
Hornish had reclaimed the top spot from his Penske Racing teammate, with
Busch in hot pursuit.
Hornish
held the point until Busch passed him on Lap 126, and from that point
on Busch paced the field. Busch conceded
that Hornish may have had the better car, but Busch found a line -- or,
more accurately, a variety of lines -- that worked in the late going.
"I
don't think we were the best car, but I got up on the wheel there at
the end and just chased down that 12 (Hornish),"
Busch said. "He was really, really good today. I didn't want to see him
win here in front of our home-town crowd of (sponsor) Monster Energy
folks that were in the stands and, of course, the Toyota folks that were
here today.
"So we got up on the wheel, like I said, and just tried to push hard as far as I could. I ran the top side for a little
bit, ran him down, got there and was able to do like a draft move by him."
Hornish was gaining on Busch in the closing laps until his No. 12 Ford scraped the wall.
"We
just didn't have enough to be able to beat Kyle today," Hornish said.
"I ran hard and got the lead on the restart
a couple of times. He'd run real hard throughout the first 50 to 75
percent of a run, slide the car around, wear it out, and then we'd catch
him in the last 25 percent.
"We
were doing it again on the last run. I got within about 10 car lengths
of him and got a little greedy, drove it
in a little bit too hard and got into the wall. But we want to win
races as bad as we want to lead the points. When there was still smoke
inside the car halfway down the back straightaway, I was a little bit
worried that we were going to end up with a flat
tire, and I was going to look real bad. So I'm just glad that things
worked out as well as they did."
Hornish increased his series lead to 28 points over Smith, who passed 11th-place finisher Justin Allgaier for second
in the standings. Scott remained third in points, 31 behind Hornish and one ahead of Allgaier in fourth place.
Notes: Kligerman's fourth-place
finish was a career best in the series… Brian Vickers' day ended with an engine failure after 53 laps. He finished 34th and dropped six spots to 11th in the standings.
RACE RESULTS
1. (1) Kyle Busch(i), Toyota, 150, $74525.
2. (7) Sam Hornish Jr., Ford, 150, $62025.
3. (16) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 150, $50825.
4. (8) Parker Kligerman, Toyota, 150, $40975.
5. (11) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 150, $33525.
6. (9) Kyle Larson #, Chevrolet, 150, $30750.
7. (2) Elliott Sadler, Toyota, 150, $29175.
8. (12) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, 150, $26050.
9. (15) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 150, $25660.
10. (17) Kevin Swindell #, Ford, 150, $20575.
11. (18) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 150, $25150.
12. (6) Alex Bowman #, Toyota, 150, $25150.
13. (14) Travis Pastrana, Ford, 150, $24750.
14. (22) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 150, $24565.
15. (13) Dakoda Armstrong(i), Chevrolet, 150, $25605.
16. (5) Nelson Piquet Jr. #, Chevrolet, 150, $24670.
17. (19) Reed Sorenson, Ford, 150, $24110.
18. (10) Mike Bliss, Toyota, 150, $24075.
19. (4) Brad Keselowski(i), Ford, 150, $18415.
20. (24) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 150, $24255.
21. (23) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 149, $23820.
22. (21) Brad Sweet, Chevrolet, 149, $23485.
23. (26) Mike Wallace, Chevrolet, 149, $17400.
24. (34) Hal Martin #, Toyota, 148, $23240.
25. (29) Jamie Dick, Chevrolet, 147, $23580.
26. (40) Dexter Stacey #, Ford, 147, $22995.
27. (37) Eric McClure, Toyota, 147, $22860.
28. (27) Daryl Harr, Chevrolet, 147, $16740.
29. (38) Juan Carlos Blum #, Ford, 146, $22565.
30. (36) Carl Long, Ford, 145, $22755.
31. (39) Mike Harmon, Chevrolet, 143, $22325.
32. (33) Blake Koch, Toyota, Overheating, 130, $22215.
33. (35) Jason White, Toyota, Accident, 107, $22100.
34. (3) Brian Vickers, Toyota, Engine, 53, $22739.
35. (28) Paulie Harraka, Ford, Engine, 42, $21880.
36. (30) Michael McDowell(i), Toyota, Handling, 19, $14595.
37. (20) Jeff Green, Toyota, Vibration, 18, $14475.
38. (31) JJ Yeley(i), Chevrolet, Vibration, 7, $14365.
39. (25) Scott Riggs(i), Chevrolet, Rear Gear, 5, $14115.
40. (32) Joey Gase, Toyota, Engine, 4, $14080.
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