Busch blazes to easy victory
Like much of the NASCAR season thus far, Friday turned into a breeze for Kyle Busch.
In the first night race run at Joliet's Chicagoland Speedway, Busch notched his fifth Nationwide Series victory behind a dominant performance in the Dollar General 300.
And with a three-second margin over second-place finisher and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, Busch had little trouble tying a Nationwide record by giving JGR its 13th victory in 20 races this season.
Busch, the pole sitter for tonight's Sprint Cup LifeLock.com 400, led for 101 laps, including the final 47 as his lead kept growing under a 107-lap green-flag run that closed the race. Hamlin sliced into the margin in the final laps, but never challenged Busch.
"We didn't have a caution in that final I don't know how many laps, but it was forever," said Busch, who also has six Sprint Cup Series and two Craftsman Truck Series wins this season. "This thing just showed up and came to life all of a sudden. We got it out front and kind of took off there."
Brad Keselowski, second in the Nationwide points standings, finished third to narrow the gap behind points leader Clint Bowyer, who finished seventh.
Now that Chicagoland Speedway's first night race is in the book, all eyes turn to tonight's Sprint Cup race and the lessons learned from Friday.
"It's tough to say what kind of advantage the guys will have that ran today versus tomorrow," Hamlin said. "The one thing I did notice is that the lap times definitely picked up at night. The speeds definitely picked up."
Good memories: Last season, Brad Keselowski came to Chicagoland Speedway to begin a three-race deal with JR Motorsports and team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Nationwide Series operation.
Keselowski left Joliet with a rookie-best 14th-place finish in the Nationwide race, kept driving for Earnhardt Jr. and posted five top-10 finishes the rest of the season.
After notching his first victory earlier this season and finishing third in Friday's Dollar General 300, Keselowski solidified his hold on second place in the overall standings.
Despite the team running well, the U.S. Navy announced this week that after this season they won't be continuing their sponsorship of the No. 88 Nationwide car.
"Everything changes; all good things come to an end," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We are at the end of the road with this deal."
More Junior: Reports circulated this week that Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, the racing company founded by Earnhardt Jr.'s legendary father, might be for sale.
Earnhardt Jr. left DEI as a driver at the end of last season, moving to Hendrick Motorsports after he and Teresa Earnhardt, DEI's owner and Earnhardt Jr.'s stepmother, couldn't reach a contractual agreement that included part ownership.
When asked about the possibility of buying a piece of DEI in the near future, Earnhardt Jr. said he had no interest.
"No, no, I would not," he said. "I don't mean this in a bad way, but I do not and would not have any interest in purchasing it. I would not have any interest, really, in purchasing any race team just to have the ownership."