Category: RC XFINITY

Kyle Busch taught the field how to dominate a race in the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 Nationwide Series race at Richmond International Raceway. He took the green flag and didn’t look back, leading all 250 laps without relinquishing the lead once, in a commanding victory. Busch had control of the race right from the start, although some got close, none would get close enough. Not even six cautions for 38 laps would slow him down. This however, isn’t new to Busch, as the last driver to lead every lap in a Nationwide Series race was, yes you guessed it, Busch himself. In Phoenix in 2011 he led all 200 laps from the pole. This was Busch’s 67th win and 42nd pole in 289 Nationwide Series races.

“It’s been a while, if you think about it,” said Busch, who hasn’t won a Nationwide race at Richmond since 2011. “We’ve had a lot of bad luck lately, and it feels good, trying to get some mojo back, get ready for tomorrow night (Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race), see what we can salvage there and roll on into the Chase.”

“All in all, the guys did a great job,” Busch continued. “They were really smart about what they needed, what we needed, what I needed.”

Coming in second and still keeping his points lead, was race phenom Chase Elliott who is having a storybook season so far. He was gaining on Busch but Busch had everything going his way tonight and it was just not meant to happen.

“I thought we had a really good NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet,” Elliott stated, “We made gains really throughout the night and we were getting closer and closer. I think we were actually better than where we were in the spring when we were able to outrun Kevin (Harvick).”

Kevin Harvick, in spite of having an ill handling car at times, came in third after starting 15th. Harvick and Chase Elliott swapped second place several times. Harvick was also making good long runs and at times looked as if he would be able to challenge Busch at the end, but his car was not able to handle as well in short runs and he was unable to gain past third.

“Kyle had a much better car and was able to take off on the short runs and get way out there,” said Harvick, who thought he might have been able to catch Busch during the final run, if not for the caution.” We were off all weekend for whatever reason and I just never really could get the grasp on it, we had a good long run car but that was about it.” 

Ryan Blaney in the No.22 had a good run finishing in fourth place. Richard Childress Racing driver Brian Scott captured a fifth place finish.

Driver Regan Smith is having a great season and brought home sixth place. Dakoda Armstrong would bring home his best finish to date in seventh place, prior to that his best finish was 10th.

Rounding out the top ten finishers was Elliott Sadler in eighth, Ty Dillon in ninth place, and Chris Buescher finished the night in 10th place.

The Nationwide Series next travels to Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday September 13 for the Jimmy John’s Freaky Fast 300 Powered by Coca-Cola.

Your current top five in the Nationwide Series point standings are as follows:

1) Chase Elliott 916
2) Regan Smith -19
3) Ty Dillon-42
4) Elliott Sadler-54
5) Brian Scott-57

Complete Finishing Order:

On a restart with six laps to go, Ryan Blaney would get the advantage on Kyle Busch and then held off Busch’s final charge to win the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. It marks Blaney’s second career victory in the Nationwide Series, following his first career win at Kentucky Speedway.

Restarting second on the bottom when the preferred groove all night had been the top, Blaney would hit the gas as soon as he saw the second set of lines that make up the restart box, getting the advantage ahead of Busch heading into turn one.

“Kyle didn’t go on the last restart – he said his tires were jacked up – and we got to the second line and I went,” Blaney said. “Luckily we were able to hold him off. Great Mustang all night. We lost track position early, but were able to make it back up.”

Busch would hold on to finish second and commented post-race that he feels the leader has the biggest disadvantage on the restart and the third-place car of Dillon was right up his bumper.

“NASCAR doesn’t police it – 22 laid back, was going five mph,” Busch added in the media center. “Next time I’ll just lock all four up & stack the field up. It’s a single lane racetrack, you can’t (bleep) pass here; it’s pathetic.”

Blaney’s night didn’t go without incident as he got loose while underneath Kyle Larson racing for fourth, getting loose and sliding up, spinning Larson out. The incident would then turn uglier when Larson’s teammate Dylan Kwasniewski would be left with nowhere to go, but into the back of Larson.

“First of all, I have to apologize to Kyle Larson.  I just got loose on the bottom and got into him,” Blaney started off his victory lane speech with.

“The 22 was faster than I was for sure,” Larson said. “The spotter said they were looking for a caution so I was racing hard to keep the spot. We raced side-by-side into four, and then went into one and simply drove us in the wall. The 22 ruined our day, and also ruined our teammate’s day as Dylan had a good run going.

“I know Ryan is a good kid – it’s just frustrating. It’s short track racing, I know it wasn’t on purpose – I just got in the wall and it made me mad.”

Chase Elliott would finish third to keep the points lead, now 13 points ahead of his teammate Regan Smith. Ty Dillon and Regan Smith rounded out the top-five, and would have a post-race discussion with regards to how they raced each other in the closing laps.

“I just don’t like how he raced all night,” Smith commented. “There was three or four times that he drove me in the fence. Everybody else could race me without touching me so I wanted to tell him what I thought. He said he was getting tight, so the next time I get by him I’ll fence him and say that I got tight.”

“Fourth in points – 28 out and I’m trying to get all I can for my guys as they deserve it,” Dillon said. “We just got a little tight, but proud of guys. It’s Bristol. A little bump is a bump – it’s racing. Nobody got tore up.”

Brendan Gaughan was sixth, followed by Kevin Harvick, Erik Jones, James Buescher and Chris Buescher.

The race would start a little later than scheduled due to rain, though it was filled with action as the caution flag flew nine times for multiple incidents. The first involved John Wes Townley as he spun on the frontstretch; Townley was hoping to have a good run after missing a couple races due to a hard wreck in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards. Hermie Sadler would get into the wall at lap 85, before Chad Boat, David Starr and Tanner Barryhill all got together at lap 112.

The incident at lap 184 will be one that sticks out for Elliott Sadler as he would suffer right front damage after making contact with Timmy Hill as Hill spun on the frontstretch. The result would be a pair of flat tires later in the race, resulting in a 29th place finish for the championship contender. The final caution would come with 10 laps to go due to contact between Jamie Dick and Mike Bliss, setting up the final restart that changed everything.

Chase Elliott will now lead his fellow drivers into Atlanta Motor Speedway next Friday night as he hopes to score a hometown victory.

After making his pit stop a little earlier than his competitors, Chris Busecher was able to stretch the fuel and hit all his marks around the 13-turn Mid-Ohio Sports Car road course to score his first career Nationwide Series victory in his 30th career start.

“Its incredible, just incredible and cold – these guys got me good,” Buescher said. “It’s such an honor to be here with Nationwide’s Children Hospital on board this car; it’s great to get Luke here to victory lane. It was just an amazing, amazing trip.”

After hitting pit road, Buescher let the pit cycle go through, taking over the lead with 24 laps to go. The caution would fly with 20 laps to go, setting up a late race restart.

“It was nerve-wracking. I wasn’t sure if I was happy or disappointed,” Buescher said of the caution. “I knew we had a little more fuel, but it bunched us all up there. This Ford Mustang was fast. My fuel light came on near the end, but I wasn’t telling (crew chief) Scott (Graves).”

Buescher then held off Regan Smith and Brian Scott on the restart before stretching the lead out to two seconds and cruising to victory. Crew chief Graves commented post-race that he was ready to throw up over the course of the last 20 laps.

“This is amazing. That is so cool to do that,” Graves said. “We’ve been saying all year that we’re here to win and to do that, you need to take risks. You need to get out front and make things happen – and we did that today.”

Buescher hasn’t had the perfect rookie season, posting some poor finishes throughout the season. However, over the second half of the season, Buescher has gotten stronger behind the wheel, posting some top-10 finishes. With the victory, Buescher becomes the third rookie to win this season as he joins Chase Elliott and Ty Dillon.

Regan Smith would finish second after running a solid, clean race, for his 18th top-10 finish of the 2014 season.

“We broke the exhaust at some point. It started popping pretty bad at some point,” he said. “As the race went on, the popping got worse and it finally broke off that we didn’t have any power off of the corners. Chris drove a great race and congratulations to him. Great job by these guys on their effort today.”

Brian Scott led a race-high 39 laps before finishing third despite some early race contact with Alex Tagliani that sent him off-course.

“I got to say thanks Nationwide Children’s hospital for letting us having a patient champion,” Scott commented. “The deal with Tagliani – he kind of out-braked me, dive bombed me and I said alright. Then he drove us out into the grass and changed our strategy in having to call an audible near the end of the race. I think we could’ve won the race if it had not been for that.”

Chase Elliott finished fourth to keep the points lead, 10 points ahead of Smith, while Alex Tagliani rounded out the top-five.

“Sorry to Brian. I made a move to the inside and once I tapped him, he kept sliding to the outside,” Tagliani said. “Good day for the 22 car in gaining some points as once the 54 had problems, the risk versus reward was too high in making sure to bring the car home in one piece.”

Justin Marks finished sixth, followed by Elliott Sadler, Dylan Kwasniewski, Trevor Bayne and Dakoda Armstrong.

Richard Childress Racing teammates Ty Dillon and Brendan Gaughan looked fast early, but finished 19th and 20th respectively, after Dillon had power-steering issues while Gaughan had over-heating issues. Pole sitter Sam Hornish Jr. also looked strong, leading 12 laps before running second behind Scott, until he pulled behind the wall with mechanical issues underneath the hood.

Throughout the day, different drivers would get off course, some having more problems than others in getting stuck in the kitty litter or tire barrier. One of the most significant incidents was when Jeff Green’s throttle stuck with 20 laps to go, resulting in heavy contact with the tire barrier. Green would get out of the car, able to walk away under his own power.

The Nationwide Series is back in action next Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Watkins Glen International Speedway once again delivered a victory for Marcos Ambrose in the Nationwide Series Zippo 200 today.  Early in the race, where he started fourth, he and Kyle Busch got together in the “bus stop” or inner loop and both spun onto the paved run off area losing several positions but at the end of the day it was Busch trying to run down Ambrose as the laps wound down. Busch was closing in rapidly but just couldn’t get there.  Ambrose led two times for 48 laps but the win was more difficult than it looked on paper. It was his fourth victory in the Nationwide Series, all at Watkins Glen.

About the contact with Busch Ambrose said, “The spotter said he was sticking his nose in and I kind of half closed the door and made contact. I knew it wasn’t over, that is for sure. I am thrilled for the guys. I have a part time crew chief and part time car chief and here we are in victory lane. I had my tongue hanging out all day. I had nothing left. I had to make up all the ground from the spin and Joey was super fast in the middle and I had to hold him back. Kyle really pressed at the end and came alive. Another lap and I would have been in real trouble.”

Busch, clearly disappointed with his second place finish said in the media center, “Another second place. Monster Camry was probably good enough, just never had track position.” About the early race contact with Ambrose Busch said, “Just driving it for all it’s worth; trying to give it everything it’s got and we were faster and we had some speed in particular areas and maybe not some in others. But, we made the most of our day I guess, considering how it could’ve been, considering how last year went. “ He went on to say, “Just got caught in a bad spot early and battled back from that and was able to get myself back up to second I guess it was on pit strategy.

Rookie Chase Elliott was the highest finishing Nationwide Series regular with a sixth place result adding to his points lead in the championship standings. Elliott is ahead of Regan Smith by 12 points and Elliott Sadler by 13. Elliott said after the race that he doesn’t really pay that much attention to the points and that he is going to a new track next week as well for some road racing.

Unofficial Race Results
Zippo 200, Watkins Glen
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1              09           Marcos Ambrose             Ford
2              54           Kyle Busch                         Toyota
3              12           Joey Logano                      Ford
4              22           Brad Keselowski               Ford
5              20           Matt Kenseth                    Toyota
6              9              Chase Elliott                      Chevrolet
7              11           Elliott Sadler                      Toyota
8              3              Ty Dillon                            Chevrolet
9              33           Paul Menard                     Chevrolet
10           2              Brian Scott                        Chevrolet
11           99           James Buescher               Toyota
12           16           Ryan Reed                          Ford
13           6              Trevor Bayne                   Ford
14           19           Mike Bliss                           Toyota
15           42           Kyle Larson                       Chevrolet
16           51           Jeremy Clements             Chevrolet
17           7              Regan Smith                     Chevrolet
18           87           Stanton Barrett                Ford
19           55           Brennan Newberry         Chevrolet
20           93           Tomy Drissi                      Dodge