Fort Worth, TX – Kyle Busch continued his dominance in the Nationwide Series this season by winning Friday night's O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Busch has now won four of the last five Nationwide races. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver also claimed his record sixth victory in the series at Texas. He won five races in a row at this fast 1.5-mile racetrack from 2008-10.
Busch, who started second, led 91 of 200 laps. He passed Brad Keselowski, his fellow Sprint Cup Series competitor, for the top spot just after a restart with 50 laps to go and then was untouchable from there. Busch beat Keselowski to the finish line by 2.27 seconds for his 55th win in his 250th career Nationwide start.
"I love running at Texas, and most importantly, I love winning here," Busch said.
Busch became the first driver in the history of NASCAR's second-tier series to win four of the first six races in a season. He finished 32nd in the season- opener on Feb. 23 at Daytona and then scored the victory the following week at Phoenix. Busch finished second at his hometown track in Las Vegas the first weekend in March but has won at Bristol, California and Texas since then. The series had been off the past two weeks.
Earlier in the day, Busch won the pole position for Saturday's 500-mile Sprint Cup race at Texas with a new track qualifying record. He has yet to win a Cup event here. Busch will make his 300th career start in NASCAR's top series at Texas.
Austin Dillon finished third, while Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five.
Matt Kenseth, who is Busch's teammate at JGR, bounced back from a pit-road speeding penalty just past the halfway point to finish sixth. Regan Smith placed seventh, followed by Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers and Justin Allgaier.
Alex Bowman finished 14th after starting on the pole for the first time in his Nationwide career. The 19-year-old Bowman made his 10th start in the series.
Points leader Sam Hornish Jr. finished 34th after being involved in an accident with Jeremy Clements on lap 142. Both drivers hit the outside wall along the frontstretch and then slid down the track before they spun around on the infield grass. Hornish sustained damage to the right-side of his Ford and had to spend a short amount of time behind the wall for repairs. He was 41 laps behind.
"I guess I could've given the 51 (Clements) more room, but I figured that he knew that I was out there and his spotter would tell him, because the 30 (Nelson Piquet Jr.) was out there anyway," Hornish said. "It's just one of those deals."
Hornish entered this 300-mile race with a healthy 28-point lead, but the Penske Racing driver saw his advantage shrink to just two points over Smith. Dillon is eight markers behind the leader.
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