By Noah Tucker
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY ó Different tracks. Different vehicles. The results are still the same for Kyle Busch.
Busch won his third consecutive race on NASCAR’s Nationwide Series ó and his first career road-race win ó when he held off Marcos Ambrose by less than a second Sunday in the Corona Mexico 200.
“It’s fun to be able to win on a road course because there’s only certain guys that tend to be able to do it,” Busch said. “My first year, first year and a half … I was terrible. I sort of picked up on it a little bit, somehow.”
There isn’t a driver out there on a better run than Busch, who is second in the Sprint Cup standings and third on the Nationwide list. He also leads the Truck Series standings.
This was Busch’s 27th career victory in NASCAR’s top three series. He led for 22 of 80 laps, second to Scott Pruett’s 36. Busch passed Pruett on the 72nd of 80 laps to take the lead.
“It’s a pretty phenomenal job by these Joe Gibbs Racing guys who do such an awesome job,” Busch said. “Everyone wants to come down to Mexico and win it. Only one guy gets to go home with the trophy so I’m glad it’s us.”
In a race that included seven cautions and two red flags, Busch stayed out of trouble in his Toyota on the 2.518-mile course at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez before making his decisive move past Pruett. In 2007 at this race, Pruett was in a similar spot when teammate Juan Pablo Montoya sent him spinning. This year ó at almost the exact same point in the race ó it slipped away again.
“I was holding on pretty good, and then when Kyle came up behind me, he shoved me a few times, telling me he was getting anxious to go,” Pruett said.
Busch said he was ready to make an aggressive move if he had needed to.
“I got on his outside and then he forced me off into the grass,” Busch said. “He was just blocking a little bit too much, I believe, and I think now I understand why he got dumped last year. If it came down to it, then it was going to be again.”
Pruett finished third, followed by Carl Edwards. Edwards is second in the standings, nine points behind Clint Bowyer, who finished sixth Sunday.
Busch is not currently committed to a full Nationwide schedule, but with all these wins, how can he resist a run at the championship?
“The consideration is there, but still, it’s a race-by-race deal,” Busch said. “We’ll make a decision here shortly. I love winning. I’ll run as long as I can win. That doesn’t bother me a bit.”
Ambrose trailed by 1.139 seconds in his Ford with two laps to go, and cut over three-tenths of a second off that deficit on lap 79. But Busch was able to hold on for a 0.737-second win.
The third-place finish was a career best for the 48-year-old Pruett, a road-course ace making his 10th Nationwide start. He finished fifth in Mexico City last year.
Pruett said last year’s finish hurt more than this year’s.
“We just didn’t have a good enough car today. It was a good car, don’t get me wrong, but last year we had a great car,” Pruett said. “We were giving it all we’ve got. We just ran out of car, ran out of tire.”
Pole-sitter Colin Braun barely had a chance to get comfortable before Pruett passed him at the start of the second lap. Braun, a 19-year-old making his third Nationwide start, finished 33rd.