Fort Worth, TX (My Sportsbook) - Kyle Busch won his fourth consecutive Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway with a flawless performance in Saturday's O'Reilly Challenge.
Busch started sixth, but blew by pole sitter Matt Kenseth for the lead after 10 laps. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver then led 179 laps in the 200-lap race to claim his series-high eighth victory of the season and the 29th of his career. Busch joined Brendan Gaughan as the only drivers to win four NASCAR races in a row at Texas. Gaughan picked up four straight Truck Series victories here from 2002-03.
"We out-wrestled all these guys today," Busch said. "This track is fun. It's fun when you have good cars of course."
Busch is now two-for-two this weekend at Texas. He bumped Ron Hornaday Jr. out of the way for the lead with less than 50 laps to go, and then held off a hard-charging Matt Crafton at the finish to win Friday's truck race here. Busch will attempt to become the first driver to win all three of NASCAR's national touring races on the same weekend. Crew chief Dave Rogers will make his first start with Busch in Sunday's 500-mile Sprint Cup Series race.
"Dave and those guys on the Cup side for tomorrow have done a great job," Busch added. "I feel like we've got a decent car, maybe not a winning car right now, but a decent car where we can contend, and if things fall our way, we can do it."
In February, Busch won the Nationwide and truck races on the same day at California, but finished third in the Cup event there the following day.
Busch also increased his lead to 272 points over Carl Edwards, who finished ninth. If Busch finishes 15th or better in next Saturday's race at Phoenix -- the second to last race of the season -- he will clinch the 2009 Nationwide championship, regardless of Edwards' performance.
Casey Mears finished an impressive second in his first Nationwide start since November 2007. Jeff Burton originally was scheduled to drive the No.29 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, but Burton slammed the wall during the first weekend Cup practice and complained of a headache shortly after the incident. Childress made the decision to replace Burton with Mears.
"It was a lot of fun, and I really appreciate Richard letting me drive this car," Mears said. "I haven't driven one of these cars in a long time, and Jeff felt like he had one of the best cars that he's had all year."
Jason Leffler finished third, while Kenseth and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-five.
Kevin Harvick took the sixth spot, with Brian Vickers and David Ragan seventh and eighth. Mike Bliss faded in the closing laps to finish 10th.
The 300-mile race at Texas featured a high attrition rate with 21 drivers failing to finish.
On lap 121, Justin Allgaier got loose and spun, collecting Mike Wallace and Michael McDowell.
Steve Wallace and rookie Michael Annett also were involved in an incident with 22 laps remaining. Annett got into the back of Wallace, with both drivers spinning into the wall.
