April 2010

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LEBANON, Tenn. — Kevin Harvick found out that two tires were enough as he outlasted cars with four fresh tires over the final 35 green-flag laps as he captured the NASCAR Nationwide Series’ Nashville 300 on Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway.

Harvick won for the second time this year and the 36th time in his career. He also picked up a $25,000 bonus for winning the first of Nationwide’s four “Dash 4 Cash” races this season.

“I knew we had 25-30 laps to hold them off and (the car) got tighter than we would have wanted it to,” said Harvick, who was competing at the track for the first time in four years and took home his second guitar trophy from Nashville.

“But we had the track position and it worked out. … It was definitely fun. It’s a lot more fun when you win.”

The driver/owner beat Reed Sorenson by 0.199 seconds with Kyle Busch finishing third, Justin Allgaier in fourth and Brad Keselowski in fifth.

“We were a little bit better than (Harvick) the whole time and I was catching him,” Sorenson said. “When we got caught in lapped traffic, he was able to hold his own through a couple of those corners. At the end, I was catching him. We needed about five more laps to get to him.”

Joey Logano, who led 122 of the 250 laps, and Keselowski were the only two lead-lap cars not to pit when the caution came out with 82 laps remaining. Both had to pit later under green, lost a lap and then the caution came out with 38 laps remaining, leaving Keselowski 18th and Logano 19th on the restart with 35 remaining.

Logano got stalled on the inside lane on that restart and ended up eighth.

“We had a winning car,” Logano said. “There’s no reason why we couldn’t have won. We gave it away.”

The accident where Logano and Keselowski stayed out wasn’t really an accident—Jason Leffler tagged James Buescher in retaliation for an incident earlier in the race when Buescher got loose underneath Leffler, turning Leffler into the outside wall.

NASCAR parked Leffler for the remainder of the race.

It was at that time that Harvick decided to pit. He took four tires and was about a dozen laps short on fuel, as he went into a fuel-conservation mode in case the race went green the rest of the way. Because he hadn’t been pushing his car, he made the decision for two tires when the caution came out with 38 laps left.

“I really thought a lot more people would put two tires on because the tires really didn’t fall off that much,” Harvick said. “Ours didn’t fall off that much. I hate putting two tires on. Tonight, we put two tires on and it worked out for us. … Track position was more important than the handling of the car.”

Carl Edwards, who finished sixth, retained the points lead, 16 points ahead of Brad Keselowski and 21 points ahead of Keselowski’s Penske Racing teammate, Justin Allgaier.

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LEBANON, Tenn. — Kyle Busch delivered a smashing performance Friday night in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ Nashville 200 at Nashville Superspeedway.

He just didn’t deliver a smashing celebration.

Busch, who started from the pole position, led 131 of the 150 laps around the 1.33-mile concrete oval and cruised to a victory by 0.426 seconds over Kevin Harvick.

The victory was the first in the Camping World Truck Series and first NASCAR national touring series victory for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Busch turned his Late Model team into a truck team after the 2009 season, and it took only four truck races for Busch to find victory lane in his own equipment.

“It’s a big deal,” Busch said. “It’s always nice to win anytime you’re in anybody’s stuff. But especially in your own, it seems to sit a lot better within yourself. This is a big deal that we’ve taken on this year and (my fiancée) Samantha being a part of that, too.

“There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears this winter put into this deal. … I’m very proud of everybody and the way they’ve worked so hard this year.”

A change in teams also included a change in celebrations for Busch, who smashed the Gibson guitar that serves as Nashville’s trophy last June after winning a Nationwide Series race. The act—which Busch said wasn’t meant as a sign of disrespect to the track nor artist Sam Bass, who painted the guitar—created a stir for a driver who already battles his share of controversy.

This time, Busch just held the guitar over his head as he celebrated his 17th victory in 72 career starts in the series. It was the first time Busch had raced a truck at Nashville and the first time he won in a truck owned by someone other than Billy Ballew.

“I gave the guitar to Sam and told Sam if he wanted to do any damage to my truck, he could have at it,” Busch said. “But he didn’t. It’s all good.”

Following Busch and Harvick across the finish line were Ron Hornaday, Harvick’s teammate, then Timothy Peters and Todd Bodine. In a race that had only two cautions, only eight drivers finished on the lead lap, with Matt Crafton in sixth, Mike Skinner in seventh and Aric Almirola in eighth.

“It’s good that (Busch) won,” Harvick said. “Obviously they put a lot of effort into it. He’s going to win, whether it’s his truck or Billy Ballew’s truck. … It was just a matter of time before they won.”

Peters leads the points by 82 over Almirola and 93 over Bodine.

The truck series has a month off before racing May 2 at Kansas Speedway.

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SHOW #103 – Our guest is Michael Waltrip talking about Fast Track to Fame on Speed, we recap Martinsville, preview Nashville as the Trucks and NNS are in action, Cup off weekend, Hamlin’s knee and more. Hosted by Kerry Murphey and Paul Northrop

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