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Busch rolls in Dollar General 300

Oct 11, 2008 - 4:58 AM CONCORD, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Kyle Busch won the twice-delayed NASCAR Nationwide Series Dollar General 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Friday.

The victory in the No. 18 Toyota Camry for Busch was his 20th overall of 2008 in the three NASCAR series - Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck. It also gave Busch a sweep of the Nationwide races at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

It was Busch's ninth Nationwide victory of the year and the third straight win in the series for the No. 18 car.

"We have had a lot of phenomenal cars," Busch said after upping his batting average to 9-for-18 on the Nationwide circuit in 2008. "This year has been a phenomenal success on the Nationwide side for Joe Gibbs Racing."

After a final caution, the race - which twice was delayed by rain - restarted with three laps left, and Busch ran off from Jeff Burton's Chevrolet for the victory.

Some drivers were complaining that Busch was brake-checking on restarts, basically slowing down to curtail the runs the cars chasing him had toward the lead. Busch denied using the tactic he was warned for once in the race.

"I didn't brake-check," Busch said. "I kept my speed. I saw Burton in my mirror. I waited until he got to my bumper and I waited until he had to stop ... and I went."

Burton, who was running his final Nationwide race of the season, offered nothing but compliments to the victors.

"They're doing a great job," the driver of the "29" car said. "They are doing it better. He is driving it better."

Brian Vickers finished third in a Toyota, Nationwide points leader Clint Bowyer was fourth in a Chevrolet and Carl Edwards rounded out the top five in a Ford.

"We had a really good night," Vickers said. "We were missing a couple key components and we just couldn't find them."

In addition to a multi-car wreck on a restart with eight laps left to go, there were two red flags for weather that lasted a total of 1 hour, 10 minutes and 24 seconds. Once the skies cleared, everything opened for Busch, who moved into the lead and drove away from his competition.

Busch led 137 laps overall.

"I don't think anybody had anything for Kyle," Edwards said. "I was running second at one point and he took off and I couldn't see him."

The race was marred by 13 cautions, one short of the race record. The scariest crash saw Jeff Green's Dodge go partially airborne on lap 125.

Green was fine, but his car was done for the night.

Teen phenom Joey Lagano led for 32 laps early in the race, but he faded and eventually smacked the wall, damaging the rear of his Toyota and effectively ending his hopes for an up-front finish.

Bowyer remains in the points lead by 196 over Edwards with four races remaining.

"I am satisfied with fourth," Bowyer said. "We just had to beat the "60" car and that's what we did."