Kyle Busch claims O'Reilly Challenge

Posted Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009 Comments   (0) Print Share Share Reprints
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By Star-Telegram

Kyle Busch already had something to celebrate Friday night with WinStar World Casino 350k victory. This afternoon, he added to what could be a very memorable three-day run at Texas Motor Speedway.

Busch took another step toward the weekend sweep here when he won the NASCAR Nationwide Series O’Reilly Challenge this afternoon. Busch led 179 of the 200 laps to claim his fourth consecutive Nationwide Series victory at TMS. It was also Busch's eighth victory this season.

And Busch has as good a chance as any to win the Dickies 500 today. Busch qualified fifth with a lap of 190.523 on Friday afternoon, and feels good about the possibility.

"The car wasn’t bad in practice today," Busch said. "We’ve got a fifth- to 10th-place car right now. If we can make some adjustments to be a contender, and if you’re a contender at the end of the race you never know. We could come out of here 3 for 3. That would be pretty special."

Casey Mears finished second, giving him his first top 10 finish this season and third in his last five races at TMS.

Jason Leffler claimed third, good for is fourth top 10 finish in 11 TMS races.

"If we ran second to them every week we could worry about beating them," Leffler said of Busch. "Over the off-season we’ll prepare better and keep working on trying to beat those guys. You can tell this year they’re pretty dominant."

Busch now has a NASCAR Nationwide Series-leading 5,374 points, followed by Carl Edwards (5,102) and Brad Keselowski (5,082).

"It's pretty cool," Busch said of possibly claiming the title next weekend. "I wish I could’ve gotten it done as soon as possible, but as soon as possible could come next week. It's an awesome opportunity and a great way to go out this year with a chance to clinch the championship next week. A lot of guys on this team deserve it."

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