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Busch gets back on track, wins O'Reilly 300

Apr 5, 2008 - 9:44 PM FORT WORTH, Texas (Ticker) -- Kyle Busch put his recent run of bad luck behind him and rolled to a convincing win Saturday in the NASCAR Nationwide O'Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.

In a Toyota, Busch captured his first series win of the season and 12th career. The 22-year-old crossed the finish line of the one-mile oval over a second ahead of Jeff Burton's Chevrolet.

The Monte Carlos of Clint Bowyer and Bobby Labonte were followed by the Ford of Jamie McMurray to round out the top five.

Busch started the season by earning back-to-back second-place finishes at Daytona and California. But in the four races since, his strong runs have been ruined by bad luck.

"It's been a tough time for us in the Nationwide series," Busch said. "But it's great to finally win one - hopefully we can keep it up from here."

At Las Vegas, a cut right front tire sent Busch hard into the outside retaining wall 102 laps into the 202-lap race, and he finished 31st.

In Atlanta, Busch dominated the event, leading five times for a race-high 153 laps before a broken right front shock mount sent his car careening into the outside wall. He wound up 24th.

At Bristol, Busch was collected by another car in an early-race accident that ended his day after just 12 laps and relegated him to a 42nd-place finish. Last week, he spun out at Nashville and finished 16th.

But there were no such trouble on Saturday as Busch led 126 of 200 laps and survived a late caution to win his first race at Texas.

"It means so much to win here because I've been second twice - it's obvious since I didn't know how to find Victory Lane (after the race)," Busch said. "It feels so good because I know how hard it is to win here."

With 10 laps left, the caution flew for an accident. Busch faked as if he was going to pit, and Burton decided to stay out on the track as well.

"Keeping track position was the thing to do," Burton said. "But we had nothing for Kyle - even if we had pitted. The fastest car won today."

With his strong finish, Bowyer increased his lead in the standings to 57 points over reigning series champion Carl Edwards, who was 13th on Sunday. David Reutimann finished 14th and sits 120 points behind Bowyer.

"It means a lot (to be leading)," Bowyer said. "It gives the guys in the shop a lot to look forward to, maintaining the lead week in and week out.

"Besides, momentum never hurt anyone."

Brian Vickers finished sixth in a Toyota, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. bringing his Chevrolet home seventh in his first Nationwide start at Texas since his 1999 championship season.

The top-10 was rounded out by David Ragan's Ford and the Camry of Jason Leffler and Tony Stewart.