Kyle Busch fought the
car, and the car won the
Bashas‘ Supermarkets
200. Busch wound up his
no. 18 Interstate
Batteries Camry on the
high side in a
green/white/checkered
finish with Carl Edwards
and pulled away to win
by just over two tenths
of a second.
When the smoke cleared
from the no. 18’s
burnout, it was a group
hug at the start finish
line for the Joe Gibbs
Racing crew. Second
place finisher Edwards
was left to watch from
pit road.
“It’s too bad to have to
run second,” Edwards
said. “It [the car] was
getting better and
better, but we’ll get
them tomorrow.” Edwards
led 38 laps to Busch’s
race high 133.
Despite winning the
pole, Busch often looked
to have a second place
car. A late jumble on
the right rear tire of
Edwards’ car allowed the
no. 18 to leave pit road
first and secure key
track position.
“He [Edwards] had a
great, great racecar
today. Our car was good
on the two lap jumps,
but he had us on the 10
and 15 lap runs,” Busch
said. “It was much
easier to have to race
up front than to have to
pass him.”
Stephen Leicht, who has
had problems securing
sponsorship in 2008,
finished a solid 7th
place in his no 21 solid
black Richard Childress
Chevrolet.
“To come away with 7th
tonight, I feel like we
won the race. When
you’re out of the seat
for awhile you lose your
focus and
concentration,” Leicht
said.
“We just couldn’t get
going on the restarts
like those other cars
could,” third place
finisher Denny Hamlin
said. Hamlin was forced
to watch the dominant
cars of Busch and
Edwards pull away on the
late restarts, leaving
the rest of the field to
race for third.
The first 100 laps
showed promise of a
clean race. As the laps
wound down, cautions
brought more cautions to
end with a final tally
of nine yellows for 36
laps. Both 2007 races
had 11 cautions.
The second victory in a
row for Busch now brings
up the possibility of a
full season of
Nationwide racing for
the 22 year old from Las
Vegas.
“The consideration is
there. For us, it’s
just a race by race
deal,” Busch said. “Our
concentration needs to
be set for the Cup
effort where we’re third
in points.”
Individual Notes
Jason Keller recently
secured sponsorship from
America’s Incredible
Pizza company and
qualified 7th
for the Bashas‘
Supermarkets 200.
Contact with another car
caused the right front
fender of Keller’s car
to shred off early in
the race, and the crew
went to work. After
falling to as far as 30th
place, the no. 11 team
found themselves near
the top 10 only to blow
and engine late in the
race.
Brad Keselowski started
next to fellow youth
Busch on the front row
for the Bashas’ 200.
The no. 88 Navy
Chevrolet jumped to an
early lead on the
outside over Busch. As
the laps ticked away,
Keselowski slid back
until being spun by
former champion Kevin
Harvick. The 88 crew
fought back to finish 12th
despite losing a set of
tires with the spin.
Kevin Harvick is still
searching for his first
win in the Nationwide
series as a driver and
owner. In 2002 Harvick
won the truck race at
Phoenix driving for his
own team, but the dream
wasn’t to be tonight.
Harvick ran in the top
five all night and
finished 4th.
Clint Bowyer ended Jamie
McMurray’s final run as
a driver for the no. 16
car early when contact
between the two forced
McMurray into the turn 4
wall. “I just got
dumped,” McMurray said.
Bowyer will leave
Phoenix with a 24 point
advantage over Carl
Edwards for the first
Nationwide Series
Championship.
Youth was not served on
Friday night. Outside
of David Ragan’s 5th
place finish, none of
the young stars of
NASCAR posted stunning
results. Steve Wallace
and Landon Cassil both
found problems with the
caution flag. Upstart
rookie James Buescher
finished 18th
in his Nationwide debut,
1 lap down.
Lefts and Rights
The Cup series takes the
weekend off next week,
but the Nationwide
series heads south to
tackle the lefts and
rights of the Mexico
City road course.
Former winners Martin
Truex, Kevin Harvick and
Denny Hamlin are
expected to compete in
the race.
“We’ll see if I can go
left and right next
weekend,” David
Reutimann said following
a 9th place
finish in the no. 99.
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