DOVER, Del. – Kyle Busch may soon be known as “Concrete Kyle” after winning in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Dover International Speedway on Saturday afternoon. Busch completed the season sweep of Dover’s NASCAR Nationwide Series events in 2010, and in doing so, also set the record for most wins in a season with his 11th victory of the year.
“To win 11 this year is very special to me,” Busch said, “It should be special to all the guys on this team because they’re all part of it.”
Busch won his third race of the calendar year at Dover, dominating nearly from start to finish to take the 200-mile NASCAR Nationwide Series race. Busch led 192 of 200 laps. The victory comes after Busch won both the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series races at the Monster Mile in May 2010.
Busch also became the all-time leader in laps led by a NASCAR Nationwide Series driver at the Monster Mile, eclipsing Harry Gant. He is also now tied with Todd Bodine for most wins by a NASCAR Nationwide Series driver at Dover with three. He only missed eclipsing the most laps led record by just one lap. Ryan Newman owns the Dover record with 193 laps led in September 2005.
Busch knew he had a good car in qualifying, when he jumped to the pole with a lap of 154.143 mph. Shortly thereafter, Logano eclipsed him by less than two hundredths of a second, causing Busch to quip that Logano must have been “super fast.”
But it was Busch who was super fast during the race. He needed just four laps to run down Logano, and never let his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate get back within striking distance, even in the final laps, when Busch felt something strange in his car and didn’t know if he’d make it to the end.
“We had to have our car perfect to keep up,” Logano said. “We did a good job, got it to a second place car. We just gave up way too much on restarts in the first 20 laps to make it up at the end.”
Carl Edwards finished third, and was able to chip away at the points lead of Brad Keselowski, who finished 17th. Edwards trimmed 53 points from his deficit and now trails Keselowski by 320 points in the series standings.
“We ran very strong, and the car was good,” Edwards said. “It had a lot of speed in it, and that’s what we were lacking last time we were here. We just didn’t have a fast car. So a good job by everybody in the shop.”
The race was a smooth one by Dover standards. The 117.379 mph average speed made it the second-fastest NASCAR Nationwide Series race in the last six years. The race required just four cautions for 19 laps, all cause from accidents. The race was red-flagged for nearly 11 minutes when Elliott Sadler hit the wall in Turn 4, rolled back down the banking and got hit by a hard-charging Drew Herring. Debris littered the track and the cars parked on the backstretch while crews cleaned the track. Both drivers walked away uninjured.
The much-anticipated debut of Danica Patrick didn’t go as well as she or her fans had hoped. Patrick blew a right front tire on lap 72 and hit the wall in Turn 4. She eventually made it back out on the track, but missed 94 laps.
“I know now from experience that when you have a vibration or the car doesn’t want to turn, you’re probably losing [tire] pressure,” Patrick said. “Lesson learned. It’s not a lesson you want to learn while everybody’s watching.”
Great seats are still available for the “AAA 400” NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday, Sept. 26. For more information, or to purchase tickets, call 1-800-441-RACE, visit DoverSpeedway.com, or visit any track ticket office on raceday.
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Dover International Speedway is owned by Dover Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE: DVD), a leading promoter of motorsports events in the United States. DVD subsidiaries operate three tracks in three states, and present several hundred motorsports events each year. This includes 14 major, national events which include races sanctioned by NASCAR and the NHRA. Dover Motorsports, Inc. also owns and operates Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis, Mo., and Nashville Superspeedway near Nashville, Tenn. For further information log on to www.DoverMotorsports.com.
