NASCAR trifecta in reach for Kyle Bush at Texas
FORT WORTH, Texas — Kyle Busch keeps extending streaks at Texas in search of a NASCAR first.
Busch won his fourth consecutive Nationwide Series race at the 1 1/2-mile, high-banked track Saturday. It was another dominating victory, coming a day after winning the fifth truck race in his last five starts in the series this season.
He will try to complete an unprecedented trifecta Sunday and become the first driver to win all three of NASCAR's national series on the same weekend.
After taking the lead on the 11th of 200 laps, when he swung his No. 18 Toyota around polesitter Matt Kenseth in the first turn, Busch went on to lead 179 laps and win by 3.154 seconds over Casey Mears, who was filling in for Jeff Burton in the No. 29 Chevrolet.
"We're going to make it three tomorrow," Busch said.
Busch is 0-for-9 in Sprint Cup races at Texas, where finished 18th in April.
This is the 28th time in his career Busch has run all three series the same weekend. This is the seventh time this year and twice he won two races — at California in February and Bristol in August — without being able to get the third. In California, he won the Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide races before finishing third in Sprint Cup.
Kevin Harvick, the only other four-time Nationwide winner at Texas, finished sixth Saturday.
It was Busch's eighth Nationwide victory this year, and extended his points lead to 272 over Carl Edwards with two races left. Busch, who has won 29 times in 171 career Nationwide starts, only has to finish 15th next week at Phoenix to clinch the season championship.
Edwards, who had to start at the back of the field after making adjustments on the car during the impound period, finished ninth.
Jason Leffler was third, Kenseth fourth and Brad Keselowski fifth.
Busch has won 19 NASCAR races this season, including seven of his 13 truck starts to go with four Sprint Cup victories.
It was the sixth time in 10 Nationwide races at Texas that Busch led the most laps. He has led 657 of 1,200 laps during his four-race winning streak.
Within 11 laps after taking the lead, Busch had already created a nearly 3-second gap over Harvick. His lead was more than 10 seconds soon after green-flag pit stops and before a caution for debris on lap 62.
Harvick led the first lap after the caution by .0002 seconds and stayed in front for five laps — including three under another quick caution when Michael McDowell spun in Turn 4 — before Busch passed him on lap 72.
All that kept closing the gap on Busch were seven cautions for 34 laps. On each restart, Busch quickly shot back in front of the field.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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