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Kyle Busch wins Nationwide race at California

Aug 31, 2008 - 5:53 AM FONTANA, California (Ticker) -- Being placed on probation did not slow down Kyle Busch.

Busch dominated the NASCAR Nationwide Series Camping World RV Service 300 at Auto Club Speedway from start to finish, capturing the race on Saturday for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Busch became the first driver to win a Nationwide Series race here from the pole. He led 144 of the 150 laps en route to his seventh win of the season on the circuit, averaging 123.402 miles per hour.

In a Toyota, Busch held off the Ford of nemesis Carl Edwards on the final restart with less than eight laps to go. The race ended under caution when Josh Wise crashed into the wall after the white flag had waved.

It did not matter, however, as no one was able to catch Busch.

"This thing was flawless," Busch said. "It was amazing. The biggest challenge was to be good on the restarts."

Following last Saturday's Sprint Series Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Busch and Edwards were involved in a post-race incident that landed both drivers on probation for six races.

Edwards gave Busch's car a push as the field cruised under the finish line as the yellow flag waved. He said it was all in good fun.

"Oh yeah, I was just messing around with him," Edwards said. "I couldn't get to him to hit him all day. Even if I wanted to wreck him, I couldn't because he was so fast."

Edwards was gracious in defeat, acknowledging that Busch had a beast of a car throughout.

"He can have tonight," Edwards said. "We want to be No. 1 tomorrow (in the Sprint Cup Series race)."

Busch had captured the pole with a qualifying lap of 177.401 miles per hour in 40.586 seconds.

"This one means a lot. These guys have had a lot of adversity the last few weeks and they don't deserve the bad rap they've got," Busch said of his crew. "I don't care about my bad rap. These are the guys who do all the hard work."

Brian Vickers finished third in a Toyota, while Jeff Burton was fourth in a Chevrolet. Jamie McMurray rounded out the top five in a Ford.

"It was a good night," McMurray said. "We had really good pit stops, so that was encouraging. We had one bad one, and then the guys did a great job. They recovered and we gained two or three spots on pit road, so that was cool."

Clint Bowyer remained the series points leader after a seventh-place finish. Bowyer holds a 204-point lead over Brad Keselowski, who is 18 points in front of Edwards.