It was a marathon affair, but Kyle Busch finally took home the second half of a Lowe's Motor Speedway Nationwide Series sweep early Saturday morning.Busch started what was supposed to be a Friday night-only event as the defending track winner after he took the Nationwide Series race at LMS back in May.
Two rain showers -- actually, they resembled more of a large misting fan being turned on above the track -- stopped the event for roughly an hour and a half total and together with 13 cautions in 200-lap race pushed the finish of the race to well past 12am/ET.
The lengthy delays and numerous cautions weren't a factor for Busch as he led the event for 137 laps, though some drivers felt his pace on restarts at the front of the field were a big factor in two incidents that happened as the field took the green flag on the frontstetch.
ESPN telemetry, though, didn't necessarily show Busch had been brake-checking or otherwise causing a logjam of the field.
Incredibly, the win totaled out to be his 20th of the season in all three of NASCAR's top series and the 18th of the season for team owner Joe Gibbs in the Nationwide Series.
Late in the race, it appeared that Richard Childress Racing's Jeff Burton had a chance to unseat Busch from the race lead after taking four tires on the final pit stop for the leaders. Burton made it to Busch's bumper and his best shot came on a restart with three laps to go.
Busch was just too strong for Burton's No. 29, however, and after the race Burton ceded the finish over his radio and told his team "We've just got to go back to work" to catch the performance of the JGR Toyotas.
Easily the scariest moment of the night at LMS happened on lap 124 when Steve Wallace got into the back of the lapped car of Jeff Green coming off turn four. Green's car briefly lifted up along the fence before sitting back on the track as Wallace's car shot down the track and tagged the rear end of Penske Racing's No. 12 Justin Allgaier.
Allgaier's Dodge hooked right and slammed the middle dogleg of the LMS frontstretch -- right in front of yours truly in row 1 -- with the drivers side of the car and slid to a stop as flames lapped from the car. I was sure Allgaier was going to be hurt, but somehow the SAFER barrier and the angle of impact wasn't as bad as it had looked and sounded, and Allgaier got out unhurt.
Aside from Busch and Burton taking the top two spots, Brian Vickers won four fans at the track brand-new Toyota Tundra pickups for finishing ahead of Jason Leffler with a third place finish, Clint Bowyer fourth, and Carl Edwards fifth.
Pole-sitter Jamie McMurray suffered a flat tire and was the victim of one of the restart incidents, but managed to finish ninth.
