Kyle Busch, driver of the #54 Monster Energy Toyota, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series History 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 25, 2013 .
Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Another day in the office for Kyle Busch, results in breaking yet another record!
Kasey Kahne challenged Busch for the win, but it was Busch to the finish line first by .939 seconds breaking a speedway tie for wins with Mark Martin. Busch’s win brings his total Nationwide wins to 57, adding to his record for all-time series’ wins. Dominating the race by leading 186 of 200 laps, Kyle Busch earned a personal best accomplishment on 1.5-mile tracks.
Apparently, breaking the tie with Mark Martin was on Busch’s mind as he raced at Charlotte.
“Every time you’re tied with somebody, you want to beat ’em,” Busch said after the race. “But when you’re tied with the greats in this sport, like the Mark Martins or the Jack Ingrams, it makes it pretty special to beat those guys and the records they set at different tracks, whatever’s been done before.“It’s never easy, but I felt like we had a good car, and we were in good position. I told (crew chief) Adam (Stevens), ‘If this track gets hot, these guys are in trouble,’ because they seem to slide around a little more than we do. I felt like our car was really good, so I’m proud of the fact that what I felt actually came true today.”
Rounding out the top-five were Joey Logano, third, followed by Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick. Next was Trevor Bayne, Justin Allgaier, Matt Kenseth, Parker Kligerman and series points leader Regan Smith completing the top-ten.
With just eight laps remaining, Kahne raced his way to Busch’s bumper, but Busch adjusted his line, allowing him to race away from Kahne.
“I got there and just didn’t get to his outside,” Kahne said. “I came close but didn’t get to him, and then he went to the top, and from that point, I was a little bit on the tight side. I just wasn’t turning quite good enough…
“I couldn’t keep up. He kept good momentum on the top and was able to creep away a little bit. I thought we were close, and if he didn’t move up, I thought we would have had a really good shot.”
Busch’s adjustment was the first time of the race that he ran at the top of the track, meaning that he wasn’t sure what would happen when he moved up to counter Kahne’s challenge for the lead.
“There towards the end, I did have to race hard with Kasey,” said Busch. “He was catching me a little bit on the outside think he was beating me down the straightaway, so I moved up to protect my momentum and do the same thing he was doing, and it seemed to help me. I seemed to allow me to drive away from him a little bit.
“I hadn’t been up there all day, so I was kind of worried about the fact that my car wouldn’t work up there, but it felt good, and it was certainly fast.”
Logano, overcame an early flat tire, to finish third and knows how hard it is to beat Busch. Former teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing, Logano moved to Penske Racing this year.
“You have a great team there – guys I worked with for the last six years or so – so I know they’re a good team,” Logano said. “I know Kyle Busch is a good driver. Put all that together, and you’re going to have one heck of a deal trying to beat these guys. We’ve got to go back and work harder than them.”
Although Joey Logano sees Busch’s performance as his goal to beat, his frustration with Busch’s dominance in the series was revealed when Jeff Gluck, from USA Today tweeted, a quote from Logano apparently said during his PRN post-race interview…
Joey Logano on PRN: “I’m getting really sick of seeing Kyle Busch win.”
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) May 25, 2013
And apparently, he’s not the only one admiring Busch’s performance while at the same time feeling a bit of frustration, as seen in Parker Kligerman’s congratulations tweet to Busch.
Congrats to @kylebusch on making us look like a bunch of chumps again ;).He is proving to b the BENCHMARK. Blessed 2 b able 2 ask him ?’s
— Parker Kligerman (@pkligerman) May 25, 2013
Kyle Busch’s domination of the History 300 in Charlotte was clear with 50 laps remaining and his lead of 3.897 seconds over Sam Hornish Jr. However, a caution on lap 153 brought the field together for a restart on lap 158.
Again, Busch pulled away from the rest of the field, but again, the yellow flag flew on lap 165 bringing out the next caution when Travis Pastrana spun off turn two, charging his car into the inside wall.
Eight drivers chose to stay out for this caution, including Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne. Kevin Harvick pitted for fresh tires and restarted tenth, and by lap 173 he was up to fourth. The sixth caution of the race came out for Reed Sorensen‘s spin on lap 178.
With just 17 laps left in the race, Busch held on to the lead after the restart, in spite of his older tires. But then contact between Michael Annett and Dakota Armstrong on lap 184 brought out the yellow flag, bunching up the field again. Leading the field on the restart on lap 188 were Busch, Kahne, Harvick and Kligerman, first to fourth, respectively.
Busch and Kahne battle for the lead, and the rest of the History 300 ends with Busch making history in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series.
By leading nine-laps, Regan Smith the points leader coming into the race, added one-point to his lead over second-place Sam Hornish Jr, who finished 12th. Smith’s margin is now 29 points.
In his first race since an injury to this sternum at the season-opener in Daytona, Michael Annett finished 17th.
And as if breaking Nationwide records were not enough, Busch’s win at Charlotte also features his 17th perfect driver rating of his NASCAR national series career. Amazingly, that was his second straight accomplishment, following a perfect 150-point rating on May 10th at Darlington.
