Busch: “May I Have Another, Please?”

Kyle Busch pulled into Victory Lane for the second week in a row in the Nationwide Series on Friday night after leading 133 of the 202 lap Bashas’ Supermarkets 200. It what could be a preview of Saturday night’s Sprint Cup Series race in Phoenix, Busch held of a surging Carl Edwards late in the race to grab the checkers.

After Busch had dominated the early portions of the race, Edwards was able to pull by Kyle’s no. 18 Toyota Camry to take the lead on lap 159, and then padded himself with a lead of more than three seconds. A caution came out for debris, though, on lap 178, and Busch’s team was able to get him out of the pits first to reassume the lead.

Without doubt, Edwards had the faster car on long runs, but thanks to a rash of late cautions, Busch was able to fend off the defending series champ for the remainder of the laps. The victory gives Joe Gibbs Racing their fourth on the season, and also moves Busch up from 5th to 3rd in the Nationwide points standings. Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, and David Ragan – all of whom are also Cup Series regulars – followed Busch and Edwards to the line to round out the top-five. Mike Bliss was the highest finishing Nationwide-only driver in 6th.

Series points leader, Clint Bowyer, sustained a late-race speeding penalty on pit road which cost him some spots on the track. He wound up finishing in 13th and now holds just a 24 point lead now over Edwards. Jeff Burton – the Cup Series points leader – was also in the race and ran well until he hit the wall on lap 199. He went onto finish 31st.

Complete Results (from nascar.com):

Nationwide Standings (from nascar.com):