Busch dominates the NNS Dollar General 200 at Phoenix

Kyle Busch dominated the Dollar General 200 to win his first NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race of the 2013 season and his first NNS since 2011 at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR) on Saturday.

Busch had to do it the hard way. After Dexter Stacey spun to bring out the second yellow flag of the afternoon, Busch was too fast entering pit road.  After restarting 25th, Busch made it to 15th within three laps and would later take the lead from Brad Keselowski en route to a dominating victory for Busch and the No.54 Monster Energy Toyota team.

Busch led 142 of the 200 laps and could capture his second Sprint Cup Series victory tomorrow at PIR.

“We put on a show. I had to be patient a few times and aggressive a few times (to get through the field). The car was phenomenal all day.” Busch said.

Brad Keselowski finished second, Justin Allgaier third, Trevor Bayne fourth and Elliott Sadler finished fifth.

“I knew I had a shot if something happened to Kyle, but you’ve got to put yourself in a position for good things to happen to you. Kyle’s car was so fast that I could have probably had four tires and he could have had none and it wouldn’t have mattered, he would have still drove through the field.” Keselowski said.

On lap 1, an accident involved Johanna Long, Jamie Dick, JC Blum, Travis Pastrana, Alex Bowman, and Sam Hornish Jr.  Long went up the track and tapped Hornish going into turn-3.  Hornish moved up the track and then lost traction and hit the outside wall.  Long was clearly disappointed and said that the car, “Just got away from her.” Hornish stayed in the race and despite battling water and oil pressure issues, he took his No.12 car home damaged, but in the 7th position.

“We came back in after I spun and put four tires on it and the car was pretty good, so to be able to come back the way we did just says a lot about this team and the hard work they’re putting into it. First off, I feel really blessed you can go through an accident like we got into on lap two and not put a big hole in the radiator and have our day be done.” Hornish said.

The bead on Kevin Harvick’s tire melted on lap 101 and Harvick pounded the wall coming out off turn-2.

While battling for second place with Brad Keselowski, Brian Vickers collided with the slow car of Mike Harmon. Vickers  finished a lap down in 17th place.

Five-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson finished 12th in his first Nationwide Series race since 2011.