Busch dominates Kroger 200
Kyle Busch captured his sixth
victory this season in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at
O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis
His domination of the Kroger 200 was his 11th top-10 finish in 20 NASCAR Nationwide Series races in 2008 and his 17th series victory of his career.
Busch, driving the No. 18 Toyota, led 197 of 200 laps at the .686-mile oval and gave his Joe Gibbs Racing team its 14th series win of the season. That record now bests the 13 wins Richard Childress Racing scored last season.
NASCAR’s recent rules amendment, which regulates the amount of horsepower allowed in all Nationwide Series engines, appeared to have little impact on Busch and his Toyota during the race. Toyota has won 15 of 22 series races so far this year.
“I was kind of disappointed because I feel like that 15 horsepower cost me the pole,” Busch said from victory lane. “I really got to thank my competitors for doing the complaining they did, because we were able to have good traction control all night long. I feel like that was important, to get off the corners a little bit better than everybody.” Hear what else Busch had to say in his post-race interview.
Colin Braun finished second, 1.111 seconds behind Busch. Mike Bliss took third, followed by Scott Wimmer and Josh Wise for fourth and fifth. Wise’s finish was the best of his series career.
Rookie Cale Gale was sixth, also scoring his best finish to date. Fellow rookie Landon Cassill was seventh, followed by Joey Logano, David Ragan and Steve Wallace rounding out the top 10.
Points leader Clint Bowyer finished 18th, followed by second-place points leader Brad Keselowski in 19th.
