Associated Press
CONCORD ó Make it 20 wins this season for Kyle Busch, NASCAR’s dominant workhorse.
Overcoming his recent bad luck that has virtually ended his chances at a Sprint Cup championship, Busch returned to his familiar spot in the Nationwide Series on Friday night, cruising to a win in the soggy, wreck-filled Dollar General 300.
The victory was the ninth for the 23-year-old Busch in NASCAR’s second-tier series. He has won eight Cup races and three more in the Craftsman Truck Series.
The busy Busch’s 70th race of the season followed a familiar script for Joe Gibbs Racing, whose teams have won 18 of the 31 Nationwide races.
Busch started 16th, but his superior No. 18 Toyota was on display early. He quickly moved to the front and led 137 of the 200 laps.
Busch pulled away from Jeff Burton on a restart with three laps to go, despite taking just two tires on his final pit stop. Burton held on to finish second and Brian Vickers was third.
Points leader Clint Bowyer finished fourth and Carl Edwards was fifth.
The race, which included 14 Sprint Cup drivers and six in the Chase for the championship, never got into a flow thanks to rain and wrecks.
There were two rain delays totaling more than an hour, and 13 cautions that caused 58 laps to be run under caution.
But a finish well after midnight didn’t affect Busch, who completed a Nationwide sweep at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, and softened some of his disappointment from his recent weeks in the Sprint Cup.
Busch hasn’t finished better than 15th since the season-ending Chase began, dropping him to 11th in the standings behind leader Jimmie Johnson.