Kyle Busch wins the Camping World RV Sales 200

Staying back in the pack and letting others set the pace turned out to be the recipe for success, as he waited for the last green flag to make his attack. Slipping in behind his Joe Gibbs team mate Joey Logano, he waited for his chance and then made his pass for the lead on Lap 165 of the scheduled 200. Staying in front of Logano in the corners and out of the straight stretches, Busch was able to put a little road between him and Logano, until the final ten laps. Pulling up behind Busch’s No. 18 Toyota as he was trying to fight his way through lapped traffic, Logano was able to stay on Busch’s bumper until the final lap, when Busch was able to pull away, and eventually beat his team mate to the line by 0.617 seconds. The win was Kyle Busch’s 26^th career win in the series, which puts him fifth best all-time, just behind Jeff Burton.

Brad Keselowski finished strong and took third place; Mike Bliss was right on Keselowski’s bumper, while Kevin Harvick drove home in fifth in his own No. 33 Chevrolet. Carl Edwards had a tough day but managed sixth, Greg Biffle was steady and finished seventh, Scott Speed finished eighth, Erik Darnell took ninth, and the top ten was rounded out by Jason Leffler.

“Image: Zuma Press”

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Kyle Busch Wins the RV Sales 200

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It’s going to be a big weekend coming up for the Wallace’s as the NASCAR Nationwide Series makes a trip to St. Louis this weekend for the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 at Gateway International Raceway, hometown to brothers Mike and Kenny Wallace. Considered to be the home track for the Wallace family, the track has been kind enough to name the grandstands in Turns 1 and 2 after the Wallace’s, and even honored them by placing their name on the race itself during older brother, Rusty’s retirement year.

Despite all of the hometown recognition, though, a member of the Wallace family has never put a tally in the win column since the Nationwide Series began racing here back in 1997, but they’ll have a prime opportunity to change that this weekend. Mike Wallace is having one of his finer seasons as he currently sits 8th in points and would like nothing more than to notch one up here in front of his hometown fans. He nearly did just that back in 2005 when he finished 2nd here in an Evernham Motorsports car. Mike will also be an honorary guest at the St. Louis Cardinals game on Thursday where he will throw out the first pitch of the game.

Kenny Wallace will also attend the race, as will Steven Wallace, who will be driving for Rusty Wallace Inc, the team owned by his father, Rusty Wallace. That team is still looking for their first win of the season. Steven is currently 12th in the points standings, and Kenny is 18th. All three Wallace’s will also compete in a dirt track race at Tri-City Speedway on Friday in Pontoon Beach, IL.

Mike’s daughter, Chrissy Wallace, will be competing this weekend as well. Chrissy will make the third Craftsman Truck Series start of her career on Saturday in the Built Ford Tough 225 at Kentucky Speedway. To date, she’s finished 18th at Martinsville and 20th at the Milwuakee Mile.

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Big Weekend Ahead for the Wallace Bunch

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Dave Rogers has done absolutely nothing short of a spectacular job since taking over the helm as the Crew Chief for Joe Gibbs Racing’s no. 20 entry in the Nationwide Series in 2006. In his 2 1/2 seasons with the team, Rogers has helped coach five different drivers to a total of 14 Nationwide wins, to include: Denny Hamlin (6), Tony Stewart (5), Kyle Busch (1), Joey Logano (1), and Aric Almirola (1). More impressively, 8 of those wins have come this season with four different drivers behind the helm (five by Stewart). After putting Tony Stewart into Victory Lane last weekend at New Hampshire, Rogers will now have the task of getting Denny Hamlin back to Winner’s Circle Friday night at Daytona.

Rogers has previous experience at the Sprint Cup level, having served as the Crew Chief for Jason Leffler in the series back in 2005. The tandem was unable to produce satisfactory results, and Gibbs aptly found a place for Dave down at the Nationwide Series. Since then, however, Rogers has been compiling a very impressive resume’ that could land him back into Cup competition by 2010.

Why 2010, you ask? Because Joe Gibbs Racing has two very lucrative scenarios that could play out in Rogers favor between now and then, the first being that of Tony Stewart’s contract situation. Forget about all the hooplah that’s governed our Stewart talks in concerns of where he’ll be driving in 2009, the fact is that even if he stays, his contract expires next year, and he’ll most likely be driving for GM in 2010. And, with Smoke most likely goes his longime companion, Greg Zipadelli, as the two form the longest driver / chief combination currently active in all of NASCAR.

The second scenario, and truly the most likely one regardless of the Stewart situation, revolves around the young phenom, Joey Logano – or, “Sliced Bread” as you may know him better by now. Logano has all of the tools to be a great competitor in the sport, and Dave Rogers has been given the task of molding and fine-tuning his talents behind the wheel of the no. 20 car in the Nationwide Series. The team has already made it known that they plan to run Logano in a fourth team car in the Cup Series on a partial schedule next season, and possibly even get him a few races this year. Don’t be surprised – as it completely makes sense – if JD and ‘the Coach’ find it appropriate to keep the tandem of Logano and Rogers together as Joey goes about his Cup Series endeavours.

Some might chalk it up to simply being Gibbs’ superior equipment, but I don’t care who’s funding the goods … to switch over to a completely new manufacturer and have to work with a different driver every week and still find the level of success that this team has is truly special. Dave Rogers deserves all the credit in the world for what the no. 20 team has accomplished this year, and he adequately deserves a promotion back to the big leagues in the not-so-distant future.

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Only a Matter of Time Now for Dave Rogers

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Tony Stewart has given the media something else to talk about for a day, as he conquered Camping World RV Sales 200 on Saturday, to become the Nationwide Series’ 22nd winner at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in just as many races. With Joey Logano sitting out of the no. 20 Joe Gibbs Toyota for the next few weeks, Stewart answered the call this weekend and led his JGR teammates to the finish line.

After leading the most laps on the afternoon, Stewart took the white flag as he tried to hold off teammates, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. (Hamlin was actually racing the no. 32 car for Braun Racing, which included an all-black paint scheme in mourning of the loss of Todd Braun’s mother, Linda Braun). Shortly after taking the white flag on the final lap of the race, Greg Biffle crashed while racing Brad Keselowski for position, ending the race and giving Stewart his fifth Nationwide victory of the season.

Hamlin, who had pulled to within a half a second of the leader, wound up finishing in 2nd, with Kyle Busch in third. Kevin Harvick ended a solid day in 4th with his self-owned Kevin Harvick Inc. no. 33 Chevy. And, Carl Edwards finished 5th, after using some pit strategy with a no-tire stop during the final caution to gain track position with a little more than 30 laps remaining. David Ragan, David Reutimann, Mike Bliss, Clint Bowyer, and Brad Keselowski completed the top-ten.

David Reutimann and Carl Edwards each leap-frogged Brad Keselowski for position to take over 2nd and 3rd in the points standings. Clint Bowyer still holds a 182 point lead in first, though. Check here for the Camping World RV Sales 200 complete results.

Nationwide Series Standings (from nascar.com):

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Tony Stewart Becomes 22nd Different Winner at New Hampshire