Kyle Bush, in a bid for the first ever NASCAR sweep of Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series races, has hit his marks so far at the Texas Motor Speedway this weekend.
After a dominating win in Saturday's O'Reilly Challenge, Busch added a fourth consecutive Texas Nationwide Series win to his collection of accomplishments.
“It was definitely a great race car, and a testament to this team,” Busch said.
A call from the driver to stay out on the last caution rather than take tires may have held the finishing touches.
“Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) wanted to come, I wanted to stay out and it really played to our benefit” Busch said. “Only because so many cars stayed out behind us, if only one or two cars had stayed out it wouldn't have been as beneficial as it looked.”
The victory boosts Busch's to points lead to 272 point lead in the Nationwide Series standings over second-place Carl Edwards.
Leading 179 of the 200 laps Saturday, Busch went on to win by 3.154 seconds over Casey Mears.
Mears was the surprise of the race, called in as a substitute for Jeff Burton after a practice crash on Friday. Mears hopped into a seat that was not fitted and a car he hadn't driven a single lap in, pulling out a second-place finish.
“Fortunately I was there, and I was the guy who could fit in the seat,” Mears said. “I just feel real fortunate to get to drive the car. I had a lot of fun, and it was definitely a surprise.”
This was the first race since 2007 that Mears had been behind the wheel of a Nationwide Series car.
Jason Leffler was third, Matt Kenseth fourth and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five.
They were followed by Kevin Harvick (sixth), Brian Vickers (seventh), David Ragan (eighth), Carl Edwards (ninth), and Mike Bliss (tenth).