Ricky Stenhouse Jr. runs away with Nationwide race in Las Vegas

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. runs away with Nationwide race in Las Vegas

March 10, 2012

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

LAS VEGAS -- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. dominated the last 50 laps of Saturday's Sam's Town 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, pulling away from Mark Martin during a 39-lap green flag run to the finish.

The victory was Stenhouse's first of the season and third in the series -- and his first on an intermediate speedway. Series leader Elliott Sadler came home third, followed by Trevor Bayne and Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan.

Cole Whitt, Austin Dillon, Justin Allgaier, Sam Hornish Jr. and Kasey Kahne completed the top 10.

Stenhouse drove away from Martin after a restart on Lap 162, opening a lead of 4.785 seconds with 20 laps left. The defending Nationwide champion maintained a comfortable lead the rest of the way.

Danica Patrick finished where she started, running 12th after qualifying 12th.

Fighting an extremely loose handling condition, Kyle Busch spun off Turn 2 and backed his No. 54 Toyota into the inside wall on Lap 26. Busch drove the car to the garage, where he lost 70 laps while his team made repairs.