Kyle Busch Wins Dollar General 300 At Chicagoland
- Updated: September 14, 2013
Joliet, IL – At one time the NASCAR Nationwide Series was known as the Busch Series. It still should be.
Kyle Busch scored his tenth 2013 win in twenty starts Saturday, dominating the Dollar General 300 at the Chicagoland Speedway.
Busch, who also captured Friday’s Camping World Truck Series event, survived four restarts in the final 50 laps to defeat Penske Racing teammates Joey Logano and Sam Hornish Jr., leading 195 laps of the 200 lap run.
“I could go all over the place on the track today,” said Busch whose Joe Gibbs Toyota was challenged by both Penske Ford drivers and Austin Dillon on those restarts, but was so strong in turns 3-4 that he was able to hold serve over the final 170 laps.
And his competitors agreed: “It’s hard to pinpoint where (his advantage) is at. He drives away so fast that it’s hard to figure it out. The 54 car didn’t run a hard lap the whole race.” said Logano who defended his team. “We’re not far behind. We’ve won ten races this year. We need to look in every little area to find a little bit of speed. “
One driver who looked like he might catch Busch, rookie Kyle Larson, worked his Snickers Chevrolet through the field after starting 39th. But while charging to fourth by lap 150, he made slight contact with Hornish which caused a tire to rub. Larson stayed out to maintain track position, but the tire finally let go on lap 175, causing a crash that relegated him to a disappointing 32nd-place finish.
Hornish, whose third-place finish (Busch is not eligible for the championship in this series) kept him in the Nationwide points lead, seemed satisfied with his run which he admitted was a bit conservative. “We have to be smart and take care of the car. We had the kind of day we’re supposed to. We need to focus on other people for the championship-not Busch,” the former Indy 500 champion admitted. “Austin (Dillon, who finished fourth) continues to run around us. Austin and I run each other clean. There’s no problem to help him out when he has a question like he did at Watkins Glen.”
But while Hornish runs toward the championship with a 17-point lead over Dillon, Busch continues to roll on.
This was his 61st series’ win in 264 starts. He was the first Nationwide pole winner to go to victory lane at Chicagoland. He’s won eight poles and converted seven of them into wins. His 195 laps led were the most ever by a Nationwide driver on an intermediate track.
And his goal for the season? To overtake Logano’s Ford and win the Nationwide Owner’s Championship for Joe Gibbs Racing.
NOTES:
• Larson started 39TH after spinning out in qualifying.
• Five Chase drivers (Busch, Logano, Dale Jr., Harvick and Kenseth) were in the field.
• Three drivers (Carl Long, Josh Wise and Morgan Shepherd) failed to qualify.
• Kenny Wallace participated in his 543rd Nationwide series race, pushing his NASCAR total to 900 career starts.
EnjoyIllinois.com 225
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Kyle Busch led 52 laps Friday night and survived a late-race charge by Brad Keselowski who led 50, to capture the EnjoyIllinois.com 225 Camping World Truck Series race at Chicagoland Speedway; his fourth series’ win of the season.
“We didn’t have the speed on short runs, but on the long runs we had a really, really good truck,” said Busch who also secured his 34th career truck series victory.
“We tried some things in practice today. A couple worked, so maybe we can take those to a few other places later this year.”
Keselowski trailed Busch after the #51 Toyota took the lead on lap 130, but after an exciting battle, could only get close to his rival on lap 143 before Busch took to the upper groove and stretched his lead.
“It’s not a lot of fun (being the runner-up for the fifth time this season), but this is the most fun you can have finishing second, “said Keselowski. “Second is probably where I deserved to finish on that last run. Eventually it’s got to turn your way.”
Ty Dillon raced close to Keselowski and admitted he “could have wrecked us both. We made slight contact and I brushed the wall on lap 59, but there was no harm to my truck.”
Ryan Blaney was third in a truck owned by Keselowski, Matt Crafton was fourth with Dillon fifth.
Crafton maintains a 41-point lead for the championship over eighth-place finisher James Buescher. Dillon finished fifth.
Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.
Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.
The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.
Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.
He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.
Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”
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