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Busch's patience pays off in win
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ALEX GALLARDO/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kyle Busch celebrates after winning the Stater Bros. 300 on Saturday at Auto Club Speedway, his 31st career Nationwide Series victory.
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Danica Patrick addresses the media Saturday after placing 31st in the Stater Bros. 300, her second Nationwide Series race. ALEX GALLARDO/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Feb. 21, 2010 | 10:14 a.m.
FONTANA, Calif. -- Kyle Busch was content to ride behind Joey Logano, who led almost every lap Saturday in the Nationwide Series race at Auto Club Speedway, and never expected to pass him.
But Busch showed patience that surprised even him, and he took advantage of a late-race caution and ensuing bad restart by Logano in overtime to eventually edge past Greg Biffle and win the Stater Bros. 300 in the 10th-closest finish in series history.
"Joey had the dominant car all day," Busch said of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, who started on the pole and led 130 of 152 laps.
"I can't remember one time that I ever won a race like this when I bided my time waiting it out and stealing it at the end. This one we stole."
The victory by 0.051 seconds -- less than the length of a car -- gave Busch his 31st win in the series, tying him for third most in Nationwide history.
Busch received an unintended assist from fellow Las Vegan Brendan Gaughan, who spun on lap 145 to bring out the pivotal caution flag.
"The only thing that was going to keep us in the hunt was if a caution came out," said Busch, who will start ninth in today's Sprint Cup race.
On the final restart, Biffle got the jump on Logano when Logano appeared to spin his tires. Busch followed Biffle around Logano, then side-drafted to take the win coming out of the last turn and give Gibbs drivers a fifth straight series win at the track.
Danica Patrick, who will make her third Nationwide start Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, placed 31st in the 43-car field. She was three laps off the pace and ahead of six other cars that still were running at the end.
But unlike Daytona, where she got caught up in a 12-car crash just past the halfway point, she was racing at the finish on the slick two-mile superspeedway where she originally was scheduled to race for the first time. And she made progress during a trying 300 miles, though she wasn't involved in the exciting finish.
"I wanted to finish, and the expectation of staying on the (lead) lap was probably not realistic, and I knew that," Patrick said. "It wasn't so pretty to start, but I came here and did what I wanted today."
■ NHRA -- At Chandler, Ariz., John Force raced to his first No. 1 qualifying position in more than two years, topping the Funny Car field with a 4.063-second run at 308.78 mph in the NHRA Arizona Nationals.
Coming off his NHRA-record 127th victory last week in the opener in Pomona, Calif., the 60-year-old Force claimed the 132nd No. 1 position of his career and seventh at Firebird International Raceway. The 14-time season champion, driving a Ford Mustang, will face Cruz Pedregon in the first round of eliminations.
Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel) and Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) also topped their divisions in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
AUTO CLUB 500
Auto Club Speedway, Fontana., Calif.
Today, 11 a.m.
TV: Fox 5
| Pos. | Driver | Odds | Practice 1 | Qualified | Practice 2 | Practice 3 | |
| 1. | Mark Martin | 8/1 | 1st | 10th | 2nd | 1st | |
| Using same car that won at sister track of Michigan in June | |||||||
| 2. | Jimmie Johnson | 9/2 | 8th | 7th | 1st | 3rd | |
| Four wins at Cal, using same car that won at Indy and Cal last year | |||||||
| 3. | Clint Bowyer | 25/1 | 5th | 3rd | 9th | 2nd | |
| Great average speeds in practice, 12.5-average finish at Cal | |||||||
| 4. | Kevin Harvick | 25/1 | 7th | 6th | 11th | 17th | |
| Good Happy Hour with long runs, using car that finished third at Homestead | |||||||
| 5. | Juan Pablo Montoya | 15/1 | 3rd | 2nd | 6th | 8th | |
| New chassis, one best in practice all weekend | |||||||
| 6. | Kyle Busch | 8/1 | 17th | 9th | 14th | 12th | |
| Average finish of 10.5 at Cal, new chassis this week | |||||||
| 7. | Jamie McMurray | 60/1 | 6th | 1st | 20th | 4th | |
| Great weekend of practice, new chassis this week | |||||||
| 8. | Jeff Gordon | 8/1 | 13th | 28th | 7th | 5th | |
| Car got better with each practice run for the three-time Cal winner | |||||||
| 9. | Denny Hamlin | 12/1 | 15th | 25th | 3rd | 9th | |
| Great average speeds in Saturday's practice, chassis ran at Charlotte in fall | |||||||
| 10. | Matt Kenseth | 15/1 | 36th | 20th | 15th | 11th | |
| Average finish of 9.3 for the three-time Cal winner |
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