Kurt Busch Scores First Nationwide Series Victory for Kyle Busch Motorsports
[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”232″]
[/media-credit]With 27 laps to go, Brad Keselowski peeled down pit road, handing the lead over to Kurt Busch. Busch looked to have the win in his sights, before Denny Hamlin began to close in his rear view mirror.
For the final two laps, Busch and Hamlin ran side-by-side, before making slight contact coming off of the final corner.
Across the finish line, it was Busch slightly ahead of Hamlin to win the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 while Hamlin came across sideways.
“I slipped up going into three coming to the white flag,” Busch says. “I thought back to an IROC race where I lost the race running the inside. I knew I had to hold him down. It’s great to race that close, rub fenders and yet still be able to finish the race one-two.”
This marks Busch’s fourth Nationwide Series career victory in 15 starts and his first of the 2012 season. It also marks the first win for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Nationwide Series.
“It was an amazing run for us tonight to be in this position with how we’ve run,” Busch says. “To get this first win for Kyle Busch Motorsports and for my little brother, it’s a great feeling. Rick Ren and the guys have worked hard. I’ve won for Roush and Penske, but it’s just a different special feeling when it’s for your brother.”
Kyle Busch made the decision to move his team up to the Nationwide Series this season after the success they had in the Sprint Cup Series. The first five races this season, it’s been a struggle as they had only had one top 10, which was an eighth last weekend at Fontana by Kyle.
[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignleft” width=”245″]
[/media-credit]“To have Kurt do it, doesn’t bother me one bit,” Kyle says. “It’s just an awesome feeling for myself, for (wife) Samantha, for grandma, for my dad. This is really cool. All of these guys at Kyle Busch Motorsports – great job. This is the most emotional I have been for a win. This is cool.
“It’s great watching Kurt run side-by-side with Denny. He ran us clean. I don’t know how many races Joe Gibbs Racing has won there, but this is the first one for Kyle Busch Motorsports, this is amazing. This is cool. I’m not sure how we’re going to run past this, but this is the night. We’re going to celebrate indeed.”
The second place finish for Denny Hamlin marked his third top 10 finish in 2012. Hamlin had to make his way back to the front after missing pit road during a lap 115 pit stop and pitting late on the last pit sequence.
“I don’t know what I could have done,” Hamlin says. “I could’ve washed, moved him out of the groove. But you know, Kyle is a teammate and Rick Ren and those guys have worked hard. I wanted it to be clean. That was a great race.”
Pole sitter Kevin Harvick finished third for his 17th top 10 in 22 races at Richmond. He led a race high 158 laps.
“We would fall off too fast and I kind of hinted towards that when Dale Jarrett was talking to me earlier,” Harvick says. “I’d have to slow down to make it roll the center and then when the center would go, I’d have to use the apron. We didn’t hit on it tonight, but we’ll keep working on it.”
Last year’s series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished fourth.
“We were on both sides of it there,” he says. “Our car was good on some parts of the run, not every part. we need to merge it together and get it running the whole run. We’ll look over some notes and I think we’ve had some better cars here. To battle back to a top five is a good points day.”
Sam Hornish Jr. rounded out the top five while current points leader Elliott Sadler finished sixth. Ryan Blaney, who was making his first ever series start, finished seventh.
“We lacked on the initial green flag runs after we made green flag pit stops and got back in dirty air,” Blaney says. “After 40 laps, we could start mowing guys down. We’ll go on to Darlington and see what we get from them.”
Michael Annett finished eight, followed by Austin Dillon and Kasey Kahne.
Meanwhile, two-wheel star Travis Pastrana finished 22nd in his first ever start after starting 25th.
“Passing (Brad) Keselowski was the highlight; probably getting beat by both the girls was the low-light,” Pastrana says. “Actually, it was great racing Danica (Patrick). I think the low-light was actually the pit road penalty. I think we could’ve run in the top 20 before that problem. I know I shot myself in the foot last year, but we’re getting there, hopefully we’ll be running in the top 10 by the end of this year and top fives next year.”
Danica Patrick, who is running her first full season in Nationwide, finished just ahead Pastrana in 21st and thought he did a good job.
“Well first off, Travis did a really great job,” she says. “For me, I think I had higher hopes as we were top 10 in practice. I was hoping that we’d have a better finish, but in the race, we were just really loose. Earned my pay today, everybody hanged in there and wished I could’ve got a better finish, but we’ll learn.”
As the series heads to Talladega for the next race of the season, Sadler leads Stenhouse Jr. by two points.
| Unofficial Race Results | |||||
| Virginia 529 College Savings 250, Richmond Int’l Raceway | |||||
| http://www.speedwaymedia.com/n2s/race.php?race=7 | |||||
| ========================================= | |||||
| Pos. | St. | No. | Driver | Make | Points |
| ========================================= | |||||
| 1 | 10 | 54 | Kurt Busch | Toyota | 0 |
| 2 | 2 | 18 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 0 |
| 3 | 1 | 33 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 4 | 6 | 6 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 40 |
| 5 | 12 | 12 | Sam Hornish Jr. | Dodge | 39 |
| 6 | 7 | 2 | Elliott Sadler | Chevrolet | 38 |
| 7 | 8 | 136 | Ryan Blaney | Chevrolet | 37 |
| 8 | 19 | 43 | Michael Annett | Ford | 37 |
| 9 | 3 | 3 | Austin Dillon * | Chevrolet | 35 |
| 10 | 5 | 38 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 11 | 11 | 4 | Steve Wallace | Ford | 33 |
| 12 | 21 | 30 | James Buescher | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 13 | 17 | 87 | Joe Nemechek | Toyota | 31 |
| 14 | 15 | 11 | Brian Scott | Toyota | 30 |
| 15 | 13 | 31 | Justin Allgaier | Chevrolet | 29 |
| 16 | 9 | 22 | Brad Keselowski | Dodge | 0 |
| 17 | 20 | 44 | Mike Bliss | Toyota | 27 |
| 18 | 14 | 20 | Joey Logano | Toyota | 0 |
| 19 | 4 | 88 | Cole Whitt * | Chevrolet | 25 |
| 20 | 24 | 70 | Johanna Long * | Chevrolet | 24 |
| 21 | 16 | 7 | Danica Patrick | Chevrolet | 23 |
| 22 | 25 | 199 | Travis Pastrana | Toyota | 22 |
| 23 | 18 | 108 | Casey Roderick * | Ford | 21 |
| 24 | 26 | 1 | Mike Wallace | Chevrolet | 20 |
| 25 | 27 | 19 | Tayler Malsam | Toyota | 19 |
| 26 | 33 | 41 | Timmy Hill | Ford | 0 |
| 27 | 40 | 52 | Kevin Lepage | Chevrolet | 17 |
| 28 | 43 | 50 | T.J. Bell | Chevrolet | 16 |
| 29 | 31 | 124 | Tanner Berryhill | Chevrolet | 15 |
| 30 | 28 | 81 | Jason Bowles * | Toyota | 14 |
| 31 | 34 | 14 | Eric McClure | Toyota | 13 |
| 32 | 38 | 39 | Matt Frahm | Ford | 12 |
| 33 | 29 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | Chevrolet | 11 |
| 34 | 37 | 23 | Robert Richardson Jr. | Chevrolet | 10 |
| 35 | 30 | 40 | Erik Darnell | Chevrolet | 9 |
| 36 | 32 | 89 | Morgan Shepherd | Chevrolet | 9 |
| 37 | 22 | 117 | J.J. Yeley | Toyota | 0 |
| 38 | 23 | 42 | Josh Wise | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 39 | 42 | 15 | Scott Riggs | Ford | 0 |
| 40 | 36 | 47 | Scott Speed | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 41 | 39 | 174 | Mike Harmon | Chevrolet | 3 |
| 42 | 35 | 46 | Chase Miller | Chevrolet | 2 |
| 43 | 41 | 10 | Jeff Green | Toyota | 1 |
Lap by Lap: Virginia 529 College Savings 250 won by Kurt Busch
[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”225″]
[/media-credit]Kurt Busch wins the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 for the first win for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Lap 1 Denny Hamlin leads
Lap 2 Kevin Harvick to the lead past Hamlin
Lap 6 Harvick leads Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler, Kurt Busch, Sam Hornish Jr., Cole Whitt and Ryan Blaney
Lap 12 Stenhouse Jr. and Kahne pass Dillon for third and fourth
Lap 13 Sadler passes Dillon for fifth
Lap 21 Harvick leads Hamlin, Stenhouse Jr., Kahne, Sadler, Busch, Hornish, Dillon, Blaney and Whitt
Caution Lap 23 debris…..leaders stay out as some in the back pit
Restart Lap 29 and Harvick keeps the lead off the restart
Lap 33 Harvick leads Hamlin, Stenhouse Jr., Sadler, Kahne, Hornish, Busch, Blaney, Dillon and Whitt
Lap 38 Busch and Blaney pass Hornish for sixth and seventh
Lap 56 Harvick leads Hamlin, Busch, Stenhouse, Blaney, Kahne, Dillon, Hornish Jr., Sadler and Joey Logano
Lap 61 Busch passes Hamlin for second
Lap 62 Blaney passes Stenhouse for fourth
Caution Lap 68 J.J Yeley into the wall with a flat tire…..most of the leaders make pit stops…….Harvick leads Busch, Hamlin, Hornish, Dillon, Logano and Scott off pit road.
Restart Lap 77 as Kurt Busch passes Harvick on the restart for the lead
Lap 79 Busch leads Harvick, Hamlin, Dillon, Hornish, Logano, Kahne, Sadler, Whitt and Brian Scott.
Lap 80 Harvick passes Busch for the lead
Lap 84 Stenhouse and Annett both pass Scott for 10th and 11th
Lap 87 Sadler passes Logano
Lap 88 Kahne passes Logano
Lap 89 Harvick leads Busch, Hamlin, Dillon, Hornish, Sadler, Kahne, Logano, Whitt and Stenhouse
Lap 98 Harvick leads Busch, Hamlin, Dillon, Hornish, Sadler, Kahne, Logano, Stenhouse Jr., Whitt
Lap 106 Stenhouse passes Logano for eighth
Lap 115 Caution as Jason Bowles spins off of turn two after contact from Robert Richardson. Danica Patrick gets the lucky dog……leaders pit…….Hamlin misses hit pit stall…..Harvick leads Busch off pit road
Lap 125 Restart as Harvick gets a good restart
Lap 129 Harvick leads Busch, Hornish, Sadler, Kahne, Dillon, Logano, Stenhouse, Whitt and Michael Annett
Lap 130 Sadler passes Hornish for third
Lap 131 Annett passes Whitt for ninth
Lap 138 Harvick leads Busch, Sadler, Hornish, Kahne, Stenhouse, Logano, Annett, Whitt and Dillon
Lap 140 Stenhouse passes Kahne for fifth
97 laps to go Harvick leads Busch, Sadler, Hornish, Stenhouse, Logano, Hamlin, Annett, Kahne and Blaney
96 to go Hamlin passes Logano for sixth
93 to go Annett passes Logano for seventh
91 to go Stenhouse passes Hornish for fourth
88 to go Harvick leads Busch, Sadler, Stenhouse, Hornish, Hamlin, Annett, Logano, Kahne and Blaney
84 to go Busch passes Harvick for the lead
71 to go Busch leads Harvick, Sadler, Stenhouse, Hamlin, Hornish, Annett, Blaney, Dillon and Steven Wallace
60 to go Allgaier hits pit road
54 to go Harvick pits
51 to go Sadler and Dillon pit
49 to go Travis Pastrana and James Buescher pits while Richardson takes her car behind the wall.
47 to go Busch pits, handing the lead over to Hamlin
44 to go Hamlin and Stenhouse pit, handing the lead to Annett.
42 to go Annett pits, handing over to Logano
36 to go Logano leads Keselowski, Harvick, Busch, Sadler, Hornish, Hamlin, Stenhouse, Dillon and Blaney
27 to go Keselowski pits
24 to go Busch leads Harvick, Sadler, Hamlin, Hornish, Stenhouse, Logano
12 to go Busch leads Hamlin, Harvick, Sadler, Hornish, Stenhouse, Blaney, Dillon, Annett, Kahne
9 to go Annett passes Dillon
6 to go Hornish and Stenhouse pass Sadler
Final Lap – Busch and Hamlin are side-by-side for the lead. They make contact but it’s Kurt Busch coming across the finish line first with Hamlin second, sliding sideways behind him.
