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 But it must have seemed like a huge jackpot for the driver of the
No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, who won a NASCAR Nationwide Series
race at Kansas Speedway for the first time since 2007.
"Whoo! We won at Kansas," Busch radioed as he crossed the finish
line, with as much relief as elation in his voice.
It took Busch 19 circuits after a restart on Lap 161 to catch and
pass runner-up Kevin Harvick. On Lap 180, Busch ducked down to the
apron near the start/finish line and powered past Harvick into the
lead.
From that point, Busch pulled away for his sixth Nationwide Series
victory of the season and the 69th of his career, extending his own
series record.
The Kansas drought broken, Busch was already thinking about Sunday's
Hollywood Casino 400, the first race in the Chase for the NASCAR
Sprint Cup's Contender Round. Never having scored a top-five in a
Cup race at Kansas, Busch will start seventh on Sunday.
"You learn enough here -- there was a bit of moving around today and
trying to run bottom and trying to run top and seeing where the
different lines were in traffic and stuff like that," Busch said. "I
feel like our Cup car is OK. If we can get out of here with a top-10
day tomorrow that would be pretty good.
"Great effort by (crew chief) Adam (Stevens) and all the guys on
this 54 car --it was really awesome again today and should have won
at Chicago just like we did here today. Missed out there, but we
just keep doing things right, and you end up in Victory Lane, so you
have to have it all match up for you."
Harvick had winning chances because his crew chief, Ernie Cope,
played a contrarian pit strategy to perfection and got some help
from a timely caution. Harvick was the only lead-lap driver to bring
his car to pit road under the seventh caution on Lap 91, and that
put him in position to wait out a cycle of green-flag stops with
roughly 60 laps left.
With all other lead-lap cars pitting between Laps 136 and 141,
Harvick was the only car on the lead laps when Dakoda Armstrong's
spin brought out the eighth caution. Busch, who was leading before
the cycle of stops began, got the free pass as the highest scored
lapped car, and the rest of the lead-lappers took wave-arounds after
Harvick pitted for fuel.
Harvick led the field to green on Lap 153 but couldn't keep Busch at
bay on longer runs.
"They gave us a good opportunity with strategy there, (but) the 54
was quite a bit better as we got going into the run," Harvick said.
"We could hold him off for a short run, but in the end his car would
maintain speed, and ours would slow down.
"We just got beat there today, but that happens."
The race dealt a crushing blow to Regan Smith's championship hopes.
Smith spun and backed into the wall during qualifying earlier in the
day and was forced to start from the rear of the field in a backup
car.
On Lap 140, the sway bar arm on Smith's No. 7 JR Motorsports
Chevrolet broke, and he took the car behind the wall for repairs,
losing seven laps in the process. Smith finished 22nd and fell 38
points behind teammate Chase Elliott in the series standings.
Ty Dillon, third in the championship battle, ran fifth Saturday and
is 40 points behind Elliott, who finished 10th, with four races left
in the season.
"Any time you have to roll a backup car out two hours before a race,
you have to expect anything to happen," said Smith, who just
re-signed for another year with JR Motorsports' Nationwide program.
"My guys did a great job of getting the car ready to where we could
get to the grid with it, much less be competitive for the first
stage of the race.
"We fought with it. It's kind of what we anticipated for the day and
at this point -- obviously disappointed. It's been a long year."
NASCAR Nationwide Series Race -- Kansas Lottery 300
Kansas Speedway
Kansas City, Kansas
Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014
1. (6) Kyle Busch(i), Toyota, 200, $75075.
2. (4) Kevin Harvick(i), Chevrolet, 200, $61900.
3. (2) Ryan Blaney(i), Ford, 200, $53925.
4. (8) Paul Menard(i), Chevrolet, 200, $34825.
5. (1) Ty Dillon #, Chevrolet, 200, $43450.
6. (13) Matt Kenseth(i), Toyota, 200, $26200.
7. (7) Elliott Sadler, Toyota, 200, $30550.
8. (11) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 200, $31550.
9. (5) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, 200, $28810.
10. (12) Chase Elliott #, Chevrolet, 200, $28800.
11. (15) Dylan Kwasniewski #, Chevrolet, 199, $26975.
[to top of second column]
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12. (14) Ryan Reed #, Ford, 199, $26425.
13. (10) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 199, $25875.
14. (21) Mike Bliss, Toyota, 199, $25365.
15. (23) David Starr, Toyota, 199, $25480.
16. (27) Matt DiBenedetto, Chevrolet, 198, $24695.
17. (25) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 197, $24410.
18. (22) JJ Yeley, Dodge, 197, $24150.
19. (28) Eric McClure, Toyota, 195, $23940.
20. (18) Ryan Sieg #, Chevrolet, 195, $24430.
21. (16) James Buescher, Toyota, 194, $23820.
22. (24) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 192, $24505.
23. (32) Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, 192, $23370.
24. (39) Jennifer Jo Cobb(i), Chevrolet, 188, $23260.
25. (17) Dakoda Armstrong #, Ford, 185, $23625.
26. (26) Corey LaJoie(i), Ford, 181, $23015.
27. (36) Jamie Dick, Chevrolet, Accident, 152, $22905.
28. (3) Chris Buescher #, Ford, 149, $23785.
29. (31) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, Accident, 93, $22635.
30. (9) Kyle Larson(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 90, $16825.
31. (20) John Wes Townley(i), Toyota, Accident, 73, $16370.
32. (37) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, Accident, 71, $22260.
33. (40) Martin Roy, Chevrolet, Engine, 62, $16145.
34. (19) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, Engine, 61, $22034.
35. (35) Carl Long, Chevrolet, Vibration, 35, $15897.
36. (29) Blake Koch, Toyota, Vibration, 34, $14445.
37. (30) Kevin Swindell, Dodge, Electrical, 13, $20325.
38. (33) Mike Harmon, Dodge, Accident, 12, $20265.
39. (38) Timmy Hill(i), Chevrolet, Electrical, 8, $19940.
40. (34) Milka Duno, Toyota, Accident, 3, $13830.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 120.576 mph.
Time of Race: 02 Hrs, 29 Mins, 17 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.767
Seconds.
Caution Flags: 9 for 42 laps.
Lead Changes: 16 among 10 drivers.
Lap Leaders: T. Dillon # 1-6; C. Buescher # 7-17; K. Harvick(i)
18-23; J. Townley(i) 24-27; C. Buescher # 28-36; R. Blaney(i) 37-46;
B. Gaughan 47-48; R. Blaney(i) 49; B. Gaughan 50-54; R. Blaney(i)
55-75; B. Scott 76-79; M. Kenseth(i) 80-87; E. Sadler 88-124; K.
Busch(i) 125-137; R. Blaney(i) 138; K. Harvick(i) 139-179; K.
Busch(i) 180-200.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): K. Harvick(i) 2
times for 47 laps; E. Sadler 1 time for 37 laps; K. Busch(i) 2 times
for 34 laps; R. Blaney(i) 4 times for 33 laps; C. Buescher # 2 times
for 20 laps; M. Kenseth(i) 1 time for 8 laps; B. Gaughan 2 times for
7 laps; T. Dillon # 1 time for 6 laps; J. Townley(i) 1 time for 4
laps; B. Scott 1 time for 4 laps.
Top 10 in Points: C. Elliott # - 1,068; R. Smith - 1,030; T. Dillon
# - 1,028; B. Scott - 1,011; E. Sadler - 1,008; T. Bayne - 971; C.
Buescher # - 874; B. Gaughan - 846; R. Reed # - 791; J. Buescher -
779.
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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