Kyle Busch dominated from the pole to the finish in Saturday’s Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway. Busch lead all of the 200 laps run.
It wasn’t all easy though. Busch was battling a loose car in the closing laps and had to hold off Carl Edwards to capture his 44th Nationwide Series victory and became the first driver to win wire-to-wire in nearly eight years. It was last done by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a Nationwide Series race at Daytona in 2003.
“It came down to the end of the race and Carl was alongside of me and we were racing really hard trying to beat each other, and I was like, ‘Man, just beat him back to the start-finish line, man, just beat back to the start-finish line.”’ Busch said.
“We made a run. I did everything but move him out of the way and I thought about that, but he did a great job. Those guys did well. He drove that car. It was loose and he did a good job of hanging onto it.” Edwards said.
Busch also won the truck series race on Friday night and it looking for the Phoenix sweep on Sunday.
Kevin Harvick finished third, Ryan Newman fourth and Reed Sorenson finished fifth.
Unofficial Race Results
Bashas’ Supermarkets 200
February 26, 2011 | Race 2 of 34
| Pos. | St. | No. | Driver | Make | Pts. | Bon. | Laps | Status |
| 1 | 1 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 0 | 0 | 200 | Running |
| 2 | 2 | 60 | Carl Edwards | Ford | 0 | 0 | 200 | Running |
| 3 | 9 | 33 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | 0 | 0 | 200 | Running |
| 4 | 6 | 30 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | 0 | 0 | 200 | Running |
| 5 | 10 | 32 | Reed Sorenson | Chevrolet | 39 | 0 | 200 | Running |
| 6 | 3 | 20 | Joey Logano | Toyota | 0 | 0 | 200 | Running |
| 7 | 15 | 6 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 37 | 0 | 200 | Running |
| 8 | 16 | 31 | Justin Allgaier | Chevrolet | 36 | 0 | 200 | Running |
| 9 | 5 | 11 | Brian Scott | Toyota | 35 | 0 | 200 | Running |
| 10 | 18 | 9 | Kenny Wallace | Toyota | 34 | 0 | 200 | Running |
| 11 | 13 | 38 | Jason Leffler | Chevrolet | 33 | 0 | 200 | Running |
| 12 | 11 | 2 | Elliott Sadler | Chevrolet | 32 | 0 | 200 | Running |
| 13 | 25 | 88 | Aric Almirola | Chevrolet | 31 | 0 | 199 | Running |
| 14 | 14 | 99 | Ryan Truex * | Toyota | 30 | 0 | 199 | Running |
| 15 | 12 | 87 | Joe Nemechek | Chevrolet | 29 | 0 | 198 | Running |
| 16 | 26 | 40 | Scott Wimmer | Chevrolet | 28 | 0 | 198 | Running |
| 17 | 20 | 7 | Danica Patrick | Chevrolet | 27 | 0 | 197 | Running |
| 18 | 24 | 39 | Josh Wise | Ford | 26 | 0 | 197 | Running |
| 19 | 17 | 62 | Michael Annett | Toyota | 25 | 0 | 197 | Running |
| 20 | 19 | 19 | Mike Bliss | Chevrolet | 24 | 0 | 197 | Running |
| 21 | 23 | 44 | Charles Lewandoski * | Chevrolet | 23 | 0 | 196 | Running |
| 22 | 22 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | Chevrolet | 22 | 0 | 196 | Running |
| 23 | 35 | 28 | Derrike Cope | Chevrolet | 21 | 0 | 195 | Running |
| 24 | 31 | 23 | Robert Richardson Jr. | Dodge | 20 | 0 | 194 | Running |
| 25 | 27 | 14 | Eric McClure | Chevrolet | 19 | 0 | 193 | Running |
| 26 | 21 | 1 | Mike Wallace | Chevrolet | 18 | 0 | 193 | Running |
| 27 | 32 | 81 | Blake Koch * | Dodge | 17 | 0 | 193 | Running |
| 28 | 29 | 70 | Shelby Howard | Chevrolet | 16 | 0 | 191 | Running |
| 29 | 30 | 15 | Timmy Hill* | Ford | 15 | 0 | 191 | Running |
| 30 | 8 | 66 | Steve Wallace | Toyota | 14 | 0 | 190 | Running |
| 31 | 7 | 16 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | 13 | 0 | 164 | Accident |
| 32 | 40 | 79 | Jennifer Jo Cobb * | Ford | 12 | 0 | 162 | Running |
| 33 | 28 | 89 | Morgan Shepherd | Chevrolet | 11 | 0 | 108 | Handling |
| 34 | 4 | 22 | Brad Keselowski | Dodge | 0 | 0 | 105 | Accident |
| 35 | 34 | 52 | Daryl Harr | Chevrolet | 9 | 0 | 101 | Radiator |
| 36 | 38 | 141 | Carl Long | Ford | 8 | 0 | 19 | Brakes |
| 37 | 37 | 24 | Kevin Lepage | Ford | 7 | 0 | 17 | Overheat |
| 38 | 33 | 25 | Kelly Bires | Ford | 6 | 0 | 10 | Brakes |
| 39 | 39 | 55 | Brett Rowe | Chevrolet | 5 | 0 | 8 | Handling |
| 40 | 36 | 27 | Justin Marks | Ford | 0 | 0 | 7 | Brakes |
I bet NASCAR is gonna do something silly like award a race trophy each race, and also a Nationwide race trophy, for the highest finishing Nationwide-only driver…
This race is a perfect example why no one watches nationwide races anymore. Should be nationwide drivers only, after all thats what it was intended for from the start of this series. Don’t give me this crap that the “crowd” wants the cup drivers in the race, if you would have noticed the crowd was slim to none there.