Kyle Busch dominates at Iowa Speedway

Practice supposedly makes perfect, but who needs practice when you're Kyle Busch. The 25-year-old NASCAR star hasn't been able to practice at the race track hosting the last two NASCAR Nationwide Series races and it hasn't been a problem.

Busch claimed his second straight NASCAR Nationwide Series victory after missing practice sessions, dominating the U.S. Cellular 250 Saturday night at the Iowa Speedway in front of a sellout crowd of 55,988. Busch claimed his ninth victory in the series this season, moving within a win away from the record he shares with Sam Ard,

Busch joked after the race that he may not practice any more.

“It says a lot about the team,” Busch said. “It says a lot about my confidence as a driver and my confidence in the team.”

Last year, Busch was second to Brad Keselowski in this event.

“It's fun coming out to Iowa. I enjoy this place,” Busch said during his victory lane interview. “I'm glad we were able to win this one. We had a bittersweet second place last year.”

Busch was dominant throughout most of the race, but the win hinged on late pit-stop decisions by Busch and Kevin Harvick. With 44 laps remaining, Harvick took the lead, opting for changing just two tires while Busch changed all four. Busch dropped to sixth, but knew a conservative approach would prove successful.

“I knew our car was really good,” Busch said in victory lane. “With a really good car you have to play it safe.”

Harvick said the only chance they had to win was to distance himself from Busch, but he didn't expect him to burst from sixth to third at the restart make such a fast recovery.

“We got five or six cars between ourselves and Kyle and that's what we really wanted to do. We just didn't expect him to pass them all in one lap,” said Harvick, the Sprint Cup points leader. “I thought that was our best chance to try to get in front of him and hopefully and he'd get caught up in traffic or if he was behind us get caught in dirty air.”

Busch didn't waste any time stealing the lead from pole sitter Trevor Bayne on the opening lap. He stayed out front for the first quarter of the race, leading 74 of the first 75 laps.

After taking the lead Busch couldn't shake Bayne, who continued to challenge Busch for the top spot in the field. The 19-year-old Bayne, the youngest full-time driver on the Nationwide Series, finally pushed by Busch on Lap 76.

The race had its share of trouble on the track with six cautions, including a pair of red flags. The first of two stoppages came lap 44 when Reed Sorenson blew a tire, slammed into the wall and collided with Tony Raines, parking the field for 7 minutes, 44 seconds.

The second was larger. Colin Braun lost control of his car, coming out of Turn 2 on Lap 93, and hit the wall. The accident caused a chain reaction as Brian Keselowski couldn't avoid Braun and crashed into him. Mark Green, Brendan Gaughan and Paul Menard also were involved.

Michael Annett, a Des Moines native, just missed the wreck. He actually reacted to driver Steve Wallace locking up his breaks before seeing the accident.

“We got lucky,” Annett told ESPN-TV during the 15:55 break, “but the spotter did a good job.”

That second helped Busch regain the lead with a faster pit stop once the race switched back to the yellow flag. He held the lead until Harvick made his last push to the front. As the race progressed, Busch seemed to be faster and stronger.

Busch led 209 laps, while Bayne and Harvick led 21 and 20, respectively.

“I didn't think we had it there at the beginning,” Busch said immediately after the race. “When the sun kept going down, the track kept cooling off and our car kept getting better and better.”

Jason Leffler, who benefited from a two-tire pit late, ran strong at the end and claimed his second straight third-place finish in this race. He was the highest finishing Nationwide-only driver.

“The boys did good all day,” Leffler said of his crew. “We've had good cars the last couple weeks and we had nothing to show for it, so I'm happy for them. They can be proud of it.”

Keselowski, the defending champion, placed fourth, and Bayne notched his fourth top-5 finish in the last six races with a fifth-place effort. Annett was 11th.

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