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Busch Dominates Howie Lettow Memorial At Milwaukee Mile

West Allis, WI – It was the Kyle Busch Show on Tuesday evening at the Milwaukee Mile. The NASCAR star dominated the field in the Howie Lettow Memorial 150 ARCA Midwest Tour super late model event at the historic one mile oval.

Busch won his last event at the Milwaukee Mile in 2008 and picked up right where he left off five years ago.

“I really enjoy racing super late models,” said Busch. “To do it here at the Milwaukee Mile, it’s a big racetrack, it’s a lot of fun and there is a lot of stiff competition that comes here. The Sauter boys put up a good fight, they’re never easy to beat, so it’s good that we won this one.”

It didn’t take long for Busch to grab command of the race. After setting fast time and a track record in qualifying of 28.695 seconds, the field was inverted putting Busch several rows from the front. Starting fourteenth in the forty-three car field, Busch sliced through traffic in his Monster Energy Toyota and was leading the pack in just twelve laps.

Busch gave credit to his crew who rebuilt the Toyota for this race after deciding two months ago to attend the event.

“It was a wrecked car two years ago that we had to put back together, there was really nothing left of it,” explained Busch. “It took a bit to do that but it turned out good.”

For the most point Busch seemed to be on cruise control but he explained that there were concerns.

“Johnny (Sauter) got to me on that one restart, he was looking at my inside,” said Busch. “I wasn’t sure if he was really going to be able to push it down there that hard or that long and be able to get by me. We were running really hard. Those were some fast lap times that we were hustling there. We were able to hold him off. I wasn’t sure how easy it was going to be to pass him back if he did get by me.”

The car worked so well that about all the Busch team did at the halfway break was change the helmet visor to a clear shield to finish the race.

As the sun went down and the track darkened, Busch pulled away from the field on the restart and left the racing for second place behind him. The race was called on lap 115 as series officials deemed the track was too dark to continue.

Last year’s winner of this race, Travis Sauter finished second after restarting the second half in fourth and racing past his uncle, Johnny Sauter, on lap 100 to claim the runner up spot.

“I wasn’t very good in the first half,” said Travis Sauter. “Kyle (Busch) and Johnny (Sauter) charged from the rear and drove by me with no problem. I was barely hanging on at that point. We made some adjustments and got better but Kyle was in his own league. They asked me if it was getting too dark to race and I said no, thought I had a chance at catching him (Busch) and about five laps later when he totally drove away I said it’s dark now, we’re good. You would have had to have a perfect car to beat him.”

Johnny Sauter battled a loose driving car all race long and was able to hang on to finish third.

“In the beginning of the race, I was really, really loose,” said Johnny Sauter. “The first caution came out, my tires cooled off and the next thing you know my car was Jack the Bear and I was driving by everybody. I’m in second and all over Kyle for about five laps. He started to squeak away and I decided to ride to the halfway break. At the break we essentially made no adjustments, I was happy, I thought I got something. We went back to green and I was so loose, I couldn’t drive it. I’m as perplexed as anybody as to why I was so loose. I thought when night time came it would have gripped up.”

Minnesota’s Jacob Goede finished fourth and Wisconsin driver Chris Wimmer finished fifth. NASCAR star Joe Nemechek charged through the field from his 22nd place starting spot to finish sixth with Griffin McGrath, series point leader Dan Fredrickson, NASCAR star David Ragan and Becca Kasten rounding out the top ten.

Jon Hunter Nemechek, Joe’s son and the driver who set the fast time at last year’s event, finished twelveth.

NASCAR driver David Stremme finished fourteenth, gaining twenty-two spots from the start of the race. Steve Wallace finished in the nineteenth position and uncle Kenny Wallace finished twenty sixth.

Wisconsin’s NASCAR champion Matt Kenseth exited the race early with engine issues and finished fourty first. Matt’s son, Ross Kenseth finished in twenty-fourth.

The ARCA Midwest Tour heads next to the Gundy County Speedway in Morris, IL for the 100 lap Wayne Carter Classic on July 19th.

The Swiss Colony Howie Lettow Memorial 150L Presented by RaceTeamGear.com Official Results
Milwaukee Mile – West Allis, WI
The Swiss Colony Howie Lettow Memorial Presented by RaceTeamGear.com Feature Finish
# Driver Name Hometown
1 – 51 – Kyle Busch – Las Vegas. NV
2 – 5S – Travis Sauter – Prairie du Sac, WI
3 – 5J – Johnny Sauter – Necedah, WI
4 – 8G – Jacob Goede (TS) – Carver, MN
5 – 52 – Chris Wimmer (TS) – Wausau, WI
6 – 87N – Joe Nemecheck – Lakeland, FL
7 – 64M – Griffin McGrath – Cedar Rapids, IA
8 – 36 – Dan Fredrickson (TS) – Lakeville, MN
9 – 77R – David Ragan – Unadilla, GA
10 – 12K – Becca Kasten – Milwaukee, WI
11 – 87 – Nathan Haseleu (TS) – Marshall, WI
12 – 8N – John Hunter Nemecheck – Mooresville, NC
13 – 71B – Kyle Benjamin – Easley, SC
14 – 35 – David Stremme – South Bend, IN
15 – 89 – Matt Tifft – Hinckley, OH
16 – 47 – Trey Mitchell – Wimberley, TX
17 – 4J – Erik Jones – Byron, MI
18 – 25S – Jeff Storm (TS) – Waterford, WI
19 – 66W – Steve Wallace – Mooresville, NC
20 – 9 – Mark Kraus – Stratford, WI
21 – 8H – Eddie Hoffman – Wheaton, IL
22 – 78 – Skylar Holzhausen (TS) – Bangor, WI
23 – 75W – Chris Weinkauf (TS) – Merrill, WI
24 – 25K – Ross Kenseth – Little Chute, WI
25 – 43K – Matt Kocourek – Franklin, WI
26 – 36W – Kenny Wallace – St. Louis, MO
27 – 4O – Bryan Ortiz – Bayamon, Puerto Rico
28 – 7TD – Travis Dassow – West Bend, WI
29 – 42F – Chad Finley – Dewitt, MI
30 – 40 – Jeremy Lepak – Wausau, WI
31 – 53 – Boris Jurkovic – Joliet, IL
32 – 6H – Brandon Hermiller – Walker, MI
33 – 45 – Rich Bickle (TS) – Edgerton, WI
34 – 77 – Jonathan Eilen (TS) – Hampton, MN
35 – 39 – Andrew Morrissey (TS) – DeForest, WI
36 – 7D – Erik Darnell – Park City, IL
37 – 811 – Mason Mingus – Brentwood, TN
38 – 97 – James Swan (TS) (R) – Lake Geneva, WI
39 – 61 – Johnny VanDoorn – Coopersville, MI
40 – 58 – Cardell Potter (TS) – Camp Douglas, WI
41 – 20 – Matt Kenseth – Cambridge, WI
42 – 5 – Jeremy Miller (TS) (R) – Rockton, IL
43 – 29 – Brett Moffitt – Grimes, IA

VDL, B&B Racing Engines Fast Qualifier: 51 Kyle Busch (Howie Lettow Memorial Miller Welders Pole Award)

Hedman Husler Hedders Husler Zone (Winners Circle): 1) 51 Kyle Busch; 2) 5 Travis Sauter; 3) 5 Johnny Sauter

Hedman Husler and Tesar Engineering Hard Charger: 35 David Stremme (+22):

Next Race: The Wayne Carter Classic at Grundy County Speedway on Friday, July 19th in Morris, Illinois

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