Kyle Busch moves win away from weekend sweep

By CARLOS MENDEZ

cmendez@star-telegram.com

Kyle Busch can see the finish line now.

The hard-driving 24-year-old, going for a one-of-a-kind NASCAR three-race sweep on the same track on the same weekend, took the second step Saturday by blowing away the field in the O’Reilly Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway.

After winning the trucks race Friday night, he can go for the unprecedented 3-for-3 weekend today when he starts fifth in the Dickies 500.

"We’ve got a decent car," Busch said about the No. 18 Toyota he’ll drive today. "Maybe not a winning car, but a decent car we can contend with. If things fall our way, maybe we can do it."

Things started falling Busch’s way Saturday from the start.

He was six seconds ahead just 46 laps into the race and led 179 of the 200 laps. Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski and others stayed close in the second half of the race, but there was never much doubt about Busch’s eighth Nationwide series victory of the season and 29th of his career.

"This track’s fun," said Busch, who crossed the line 3.154 seconds ahead of Casey Mears. "It’s fun when you have good cars, of course."

Busch got caught up thinking about the potential sweep, telling the fans, "Two down, one to go."

But he continued to downplay his chances, considering his new Sprint Cup crew chief, Dave Rogers, will be working his first race after replacing Steve Addington, whom the team let go after last week’s race at Talladega. Plus, no NASCAR driver has ever won three races on the same track in the same weekend.

So how would the fans greet a historic weekend sweep by the brash Busch?

"I don’t know," he said. "People would get tired of buying tickets to the Kyle Busch show. I think it would be great. The hardest one is always the last one. Of course, it’s the biggest show. We’ve got some work to do."

The victory also allowed Busch to repeat a season sweep of the two Nationwide races at TMS. He won both Nationwide races here last year, also. (Brendan Gaughan did the same in the truck series at TMS in 2002 and ’03).

Busch is nearly unstoppable in a Nationwide car at TMS. He led 126 of 200 laps in April ’08, 174 in November ’08 and 176 in April ’09. He has four wins and eight top-fives in 10 NNS starts in Fort Worth.

"This is, for some reason, one of my best race tracks," Busch said. "I seem to really like getting around here. This car was flawless again today. We’ve had cars that have been flawless like this for the past four races here."

Today, Busch will go for his fifth Sprint Cup victory of the season, to go with his seven Camping World Truck Series victories (including Friday night) and eight Nationwide victories.

But he has never won a Sprint Cup race at Texas. He was 18th in the spring race here. He finished third and sixth in ’08.

Busch took the lead early Saturday, but Kevin Harvick had it out of a restart on Lap 71. Busch pushed him hard. Two laps later, tailing Harvick, Busch dove to the bottom of the track and took the lead when Harvick couldn’t hold his line.

"Harvick was racing us hard there at the beginning, and at the end, Kenseth was in there, but he came in for tires, and at this place, it’s so hard to work your way back in traffic," Busch said. "I stayed out, and it worked to our benefit because so many cars chose to stay out behind us."

Kahne had a strong car, too, but he got loose on Lap 112 just when it appeared he was ready to run with the leaders. But his car had a suspension problem, and Kahne came off the track and went to the garage, where his day ended.

"Kyle was gone, but at times, we were faster," he said. "If anybody had a shot at him today, we did."

CARLOS MENDEZ, 817-390-7407

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