Big finish for Busch at Nationwide race
After dominating most of the night, Kyle Busch looked like he wouldn't win Friday's NASCAR Nationwide Dollar General 300 at Joliet's Chicagoland Speedway.
Like so many times before, however, Busch found one last burst of dominance.
In a green-white-checker finish following a late caution, Busch restarted on the outside of the front row and pulled away from race leader Joey Logano.
Just as Busch took the white flag signaling one lap to go, a six-car wreck occurred behind him to end the race and seal Busch's seventh win in 15 Nationwide starts this season. Busch is now second on the all-time Nationwide win list with 37, moving one ahead of Kevin Harvick, the pole-sitter for Friday's race who finished seventh.
"It was cool the way it turned out there at the end, it kind of fell back into place," Busch said. "You couldn't have asked for it to turn out any better."
In her fifth Nationwide race, Danica Patrick enjoyed her best finish. Despite suffering a flat tire with five laps to go, Patrick preserved a 24th-place finish thanks to the caution flag a lap later.
"I definitely learned a lot," said Patrick, whose previous top finish was 30th. "It was really nice to run a clean race with no accidents."
Logano, Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, took two tires while Busch took four during a pit stop under caution with 15 laps to go. That gave Busch a boost, as did an odd twist to the green-white-checker finale.
Logano expected to restart alongside second-place Brad Keselowski, the Nationwide points leader, but Keselowski ran out of gas near the end of the final caution lap. That allowed Busch, restarting fourth right behind Keselowski, to move up a row outside of Logano as the green flag came out.
After the race Logano felt David Reutimann, in third place before the restart, should have moved up to second place on the outside of the front row. That didn't happen, and Busch rolled to his second Nationwide victory at Chicagoland Speedway and his fourth overall win at the track.
The top five finishers - including third-place rookie Brian Scott, fourth-place Reutimann and Jason Leffler - were all Toyotas.
"I don't understand how that lineup worked because third place started third still," Logano said of the restart. "It was kind of a screwy situation."
Busch looked unbeatable while leading 110 of the 200 laps. Busch, overcoming an early drive-through penalty for excessive pit road speed, controlled the race until shortly after a restart with about 50 laps to go when Logano seized the lead.
Busch acknowledged that without Keselowski's trouble on the final restart, he probably couldn't have won the race from the second row.
"I don't think I would have had a shot to win the race because it was going to take too much to get alongside Joey," Busch said. "(Keselowski) ran out of fuel. Apparently those Dodges make good horsepower but they suck a lot of fuel. So good for him."
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