Busch vs. Busch: Pocono

Kyle Busch

Truck: Busch shut down operations of his No. 56 truck this week and with the trucks in Texas and Cup in Pocono, had Johnny Benson in the driver's seat. Benson brought the truck home 10th.

Nationwide: Busch announced several weeks ago he would not run the entire Nationwide season, especially on split weekends. This weekend, Brad Coleman took over the wheel of the No. 18 and finished sixth.

Cup: Busch had a great weekend at Pocono, where he was making his 200th start. He finished sixth, fifth and fourteenth in practices. He topped that off by qualifying on the pole next to Clint Bowyer. He led four times for 32 laps, although at one point fell to around 14th position. However, he stayed in the top five for most of the race and came to the checkered flag 2nd, behind teammate Denny Hamlin. This is his third top 10 in 11 races at Pocono and his ninth top 10 of 2010. Busch remains second in the point standings, now only 19 behind leader Kevin Harvick.


Kurt Busch

The elder Busch had a roller coaster of a weekend. In practices, he finished 10th, 10th and 20th and qualified fourth.

The remainder of this article can be read at examiner.com.

Article originally published at LV NASCAR Examiner and republished with permission of author.

Photo Courtesy: Drew Hallowell/Getty Images for NASCAR

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Kyle Busch at Nashville

Truck: Busch led 131 of 150 laps and took the checkered flag for the first time in his own Kyle Busch Motorsports equipment. Constantly at the front of the pack, he beat Kevin Harvick to get his second guitar in Nashville.

Nationwide: Busch started fourth at the race he is defending and won in his truck yesterday. Throughout the first half of the race, he complained about his car and did not lead any laps. After the red flag was lifted on lap 121, Busch was seventh. He doubled his placement by lap 137 on the next restart after the next caution, starting 14th. Seven laps later he was in fourth. With 50 laps left and fuel and pit strategy talk flying around, Busch was in third. The guys in the broadcast booth predicted if the race stayed green, he would be the only one who could make it all the way. When Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano pitted under green to get fuel and new tires, Busch took over the lead. He fell back to second after a caution on lap 191. At the checkered flag, Busch took third place.

This article originally published at examiner.com and republished with permission of the author.

Photo courtesy of nascarmedia.com

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Harvick wins at Nashville with two-tire stop

 

LEBANON, Tenn. — Kevin Harvick found out that two tires were enough as he outlasted cars with four fresh tires over the final 35 green-flag laps as he captured the NASCAR Nationwide Series' Nashville 300 on Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway.

Harvick won for the second time this year and the 36th time in his career. He also picked up a $25,000 bonus for winning the first of Nationwide's four "Dash 4 Cash" races this season.

"I knew we had 25-30 laps to hold them off and (the car) got tighter than we would have wanted it to," said Harvick, who was competing at the track for the first time in four years and took home his second guitar trophy from Nashville.

"But we had the track position and it worked out. … It was definitely fun. It's a lot more fun when you win."

The driver/owner beat Reed Sorenson by 0.199 seconds with Kyle Busch finishing third, Justin Allgaier in fourth and Brad Keselowski in fifth.

"We were a little bit better than (Harvick) the whole time and I was catching him," Sorenson said. "When we got caught in lapped traffic, he was able to hold his own through a couple of those corners. At the end, I was catching him. We needed about five more laps to get to him."

Joey Logano, who led 122 of the 250 laps, and Keselowski were the only two lead-lap cars not to pit when the caution came out with 82 laps remaining. Both had to pit later under green, lost a lap and then the caution came out with 38 laps remaining, leaving Keselowski 18th and Logano 19th on the restart with 35 remaining.

Logano got stalled on the inside lane on that restart and ended up eighth.

"We had a winning car," Logano said. "There's no reason why we couldn't have won. We gave it away."

The accident where Logano and Keselowski stayed out wasn't really an accident—Jason Leffler tagged James Buescher in retaliation for an incident earlier in the race when Buescher got loose underneath Leffler, turning Leffler into the outside wall.

NASCAR parked Leffler for the remainder of the race.

It was at that time that Harvick decided to pit. He took four tires and was about a dozen laps short on fuel, as he went into a fuel-conservation mode in case the race went green the rest of the way. Because he hadn't been pushing his car, he made the decision for two tires when the caution came out with 38 laps left.

"I really thought a lot more people would put two tires on because the tires really  didn't fall off that much," Harvick said. "Ours didn't fall off that much. I hate putting two tires on. Tonight, we put two tires on and it worked out for us. … Track position was more important than the handling of the car."

Carl Edwards, who finished sixth, retained the points lead, 16 points ahead of Brad Keselowski and 21 points ahead of Keselowski's Penske Racing teammate, Justin Allgaier.

 

FINAL RESULTS – NASHVILLE 300

1. Kevin Harvick    
2. Reed Sorenson    
3. Kyle Busch    
4. Justin Allgaier    
5. Brad Keselowski    
6. Carl Edwards    
7. Scott Wimmer    
8. Joey Logano
9. Michael Annett    
10. Brendan Gaughan    
11. Paul Menard    
12. Trevor Bayne    
13. Johnny Sauter    
14. Kelly Bires    
15. Brian Scott *    
16. Shelby Howard    
17. Mike Wallace    
18. John Wes Townley    
19. Scott Riggs    
20. Josh Wise    
21. Scott Lagasse Jr.    
22. Jeremy Clements    
23. Robert Richardson Jr.    
24. Brian Keselowski    
25. Kenny Wallace    
26. Derrike Cope
27. Mike Bliss     Chevrolet   
28. Joe Nemechek    
29. Eric McClure    
30. Colin Braun *    
31. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. *    
32. Tony Raines    
33. Mikey Kile    
34. James Buescher *    
35. Willie Allen    
36. Steve Wallace    
37. Michael McDowell    
38. Jason Keller    
39. Jason Leffler    
40. Morgan Shepherd    
41. Mark Green        
42. Kevin Lepage    
43. Danny O'Quinn Jr.

*Rookie

Text and photos from NASCAR Media

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Kyle Busch Motorsports Earns First Victory with Driver-Owner Behind the Wheel

LEBANON, Tenn. — Kyle Busch delivered a smashing performance Friday night in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series' Nashville 200 at Nashville Superspeedway.

He just didn't deliver a smashing celebration.

Busch, who started from the pole position, led 131 of the 150 laps around the 1.33-mile concrete oval and cruised to a victory by 0.426 seconds over Kevin Harvick.

The victory was the first in the Camping World Truck Series and first NASCAR national touring series victory for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Busch turned his Late Model team into a truck team after the 2009 season, and it took only four truck races for Busch to find victory lane in his own equipment.

"It's a big deal," Busch said. "It's always nice to win anytime you're in anybody's stuff. But especially in your own, it seems to sit a lot better within yourself. This is a big deal that we've taken on this year and (my fiancée) Samantha being a part of that, too.

"There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears this winter put into this deal. … I'm very proud of everybody and the way they've worked so hard this year."


A change in teams also included a change in celebrations for Busch, who smashed the Gibson guitar that serves as Nashville's trophy last June after winning a Nationwide Series race. The act—which Busch said wasn't meant as a sign of disrespect to the track nor artist Sam Bass, who painted the guitar—created a stir for a driver who already battles his share of controversy.

This time, Busch just held the guitar over his head as he celebrated his 17th victory in 72 career starts in the series. It was the first time Busch had raced a truck at Nashville and the first time he won in a truck owned by someone other than Billy Ballew.


"I gave the guitar to Sam and told Sam if he wanted to do any damage to my truck, he could have at it," Busch said. "But he didn't. It's all good."

Following Busch and Harvick across the finish line were Ron Hornaday, Harvick's teammate, then Timothy Peters and Todd Bodine. In a race that had only two cautions, only eight drivers finished on the lead lap, with Matt Crafton in sixth, Mike Skinner in seventh and Aric Almirola in eighth.

"It's good that (Busch) won," Harvick said. "Obviously they put a lot of effort into it. He's going to win, whether it's his truck or Billy Ballew's truck. … It was just a matter of time before they won."

Peters leads the points by 82 over Almirola and 93 over Bodine.

The truck series has a month off before racing May 2 at Kansas Speedway.

FINAL RESULTS: NASHVILLE 200

1. Kyle Busch
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Ron Hornaday Jr.
4. Timothy Peters
5. Todd Bodine
6. Matt Crafton
7. Mike Skinner
8. Aric Almirola
9. Stacy Compton
10. Rick Crawford
11. Johnny Sauter
12. Steve Wallace
13. James Buescher
14. Austin Dillon
15. Ricky Carmichael
16. David Starr
17. Tayler Malsam
18. Brad Keselowski
19. Jason White
20. Justin Lofton
21. Mario Goddelin
22. Donny Lia
23. Dillon Oliver
24. Chris Eggleston
25. Jennifer Jo Cobb
26. Dennis Setzer
27. Ryan Seig
28. Chris Fontaine
29. Willie Allen
30. Brian Johnson Jr.
31. Norm Benning
32. Brett Butler
33. Tim Bainey Jr.
34. Brent Raymer
35. Shane Seig
36. GR Smith

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TV Schedule April 1-3

Because of the Easter holiday, the Sprint Cup Series is taking a breather. But fortunately for NASCAR fans, the Nationwide and Camping World World Truck series will be in full swing this weekend at Nashville Superspeedway. The 1.333-mile oval, built in 2000, is one of only three concrete tracks on the NASCAR circuit.

Nashville will celebrate its 10th season with a doubleheader of racing, a first for the track: the Nashville 200 Truck race on Friday and the Nashville 300 Nationwide race on Saturday. The winner of each race will rock out in Victory Lane with a Sam Bass signature Gibson guitar. Will we see a repeat of Kyle Busch's "smashing" celebration from last season? Tune in to find out.

Only the Truck and Nationwide races will be televised this weekend, not practice nor qualifying sessions. The days and times for each series' practices and qualifying have been included in the schedule below for those fans who may wish to log onto Twitter or NASCAR.com for updates.

Also included in the schedule is SPEED's airing of the season-opening race of the K&N Pro Series East Series, formerly the Camping World East Series, on Thursday. The race was run March 27 at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina.

Here's a schedule of track events and TV coverage of NASCAR events this weekend (all times in Eastern Standard Time. Channel has been included for those events that will be televised. Note: The live broadcast of the Nationwide race is on ESPN this weekend):

Thursday, April 1:
6:00 p.m. NASCAR K&N Pro Series at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, SPEED

Friday, April 2:
11 a.m. Truck practice
12:30 p.m. Truck final practice
3:30 p.m. Nationwide practice
5 p.m. Truck qualifying
6:30 p.m. Nationwide final practice
7:30 p.m. Truck Series SetUp, SPEED (reruns at midnight)
8:00 p.m. Truck Series: Nashville 200, SPEED.Green flag: 8:19 p.m. (reruns at 12:30 a.m.)

Saturday, April 3:
12 noon Nationwide qualifying (click here to follow NASCAR.com's leaderboard)
3:30 p.m. Nationwide Countdown presented by Hellmann's, ESPN
4:00 p.m. Nationwide: Nashville 300, ESPN. Green flag: 4:16 p.m. (reruns at 12:30 a.m. on ESPN2)

PHOTOS FROM NASCAR MEDIA

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