Busch wins the Royal Purple 300 at Auto Club Speedway

Kyle Busch won the 15th Annual NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Royal Purple 300.  This was Busch’s sixth victory and 12th top-10 finish in 15 races at Auto Club Speedway.

This was Busch’s third victory of the season and the fourth top-10 finish in 2013.

Sam Hornish Jr. finished second, Regan Smith third, Parker Kligerman fourth  and Austin Dillon rounded out the top-5.

“It feels really good. We started off the year just the way we wanted to and have made sure we took care of the car throughout the first five races as well as we could. We wanted to get out of the box good and I preached that to the team in the off-season.” Hornish said posting his fifth top-10 finish this season.

Busch started on the pole but Sadler took over the lead on lap 2 and started to put some ground on the other leaders while Busch battled with Brad Keselowski, Hornish Jr. and Brian Vickers.

Sadler was pulling away when all of a sudden he started to slow down and went down to the apron of the track.  Sadler switched ignition switches and able to continue.

The first caution waved on lap 33 for debris when the No.7 of Smith blew the left front tire of his JR Motorsports car and threw some tire pieces on the race track to cause the caution. All of the leaders came in to pit for the first stop of the day. Everyone took four tires but the lead did not change as Busch came in first and came out first. Vickers, Hornish Jr, Scott and Sadler came out of the pits in the top-5.

Restart was on lap 38 with Busch leading while everybody was going two, three or even four wide.  Busch kept the lead while Hornish Jr. passed Vickers for second place. Hornish then gained little every lap and was battling Busch for the lead on lap 41 and took over the lead. Busch battled back took over the lead two laps later.

The Caution came out right after Busch took over the lead when the No.79 of Paulie Harraka just went up in flames on the backstretch. Harraka got out of the car and was okay.

The green flag waved on lap 50 with Hornish Jr. and Busch battling for the lead with Hornish Jr.  Busch took over the lead on lap 54 while Vickers was telling his crew that something was not right with the car and went into the pits.

Green flag pit stops occurred on lap 78 with the No.32 of Kyle Larson came in for his second pit stop of the day. Scott also came in saying his car is pretty good but he just needs a little more tightness in the car and it will be real good. Keselowksi came in and told his crew he was “wrecking loose” but it was getting better. Hornish Jr. and Sadler came in and has solid stops and was away. Busch finally came in on lap 81 and finished his stop but came out second due to Hornish Jr. took over the top spot due to coming in two laps earlier and had faster tires. Busch did not seem fazed by that as he took Hornish Jr. for the lead and pulled away.

With 57 laps to go, the caution came out for debris on the race track. Everybody came into the pits but nobody will be able to make it as they will be about 10-12 laps short of making it to the good. Everybody took four tires except for the No.2 of Brian Scott as Scott took no tires and came out first out of pit lane.

The green flag waved on lap 100 and with Scott having no tires, he just flew back into the pack as Busch and Hornish Jr took over the lead like they have been doing the entire race.

The caution waved with 39 laps to go when Jason White and Mike Harmon got together coming off of turn 4. All but one of the leaders came in for their “money” stop. Most everyone did not take tires as all they needed was fuel. Hornish Jr. came out first with Busch right behind him. Scott was the only one that took tires as he did not take tires the last stop while the others did. Keselowski did not pit and will lead them back to the green with 35 laps to go.

Green waved with 35 laps to go and all the guys were up on the gas ready to go! Hornish over took his teammate on the backstretch to regain the lead while the young stud of Larson was battling Busch for third. Busch passed Keselowski for second and set his sights on Hornish Jr.

Brad Sweet spun coming onto the backstretch with 27 to go but no caution flag. Busch got a great run off the corner and past Hornish Jr. for the lead. Hornish Jr. was slowly gaining on Busch but with two laps to go, Hornish Jr. smacked the outside wall trying to get as much as he could but came up one spot short.

Hornish Jr. leads the series point standings by 28 points over Regan Smith.