If you blinked during the final lap of Saturday’s Stater Bros. 300 at Auto Club Speedway you would have missed one of the closest finishes in NASCAR Nationwide Series history. Kyle Busch (No. 18 Z-line Designs Toyota) edged out Greg Biffle (No. 27 Red Man Moist Snuff Ford) by a mere .051 seconds, the 10th slimmest margin of victory in the history of the series.
The victory marked Busch’s second consecutive NNS win at Auto Club Speedway and third overall. Busch won with an average speed of 143.886 miles per hour. In his 11 races at Auto Club Speedway Busch has an unprecedented eight Top-10 finishes.
“It was exciting for us,” said Busch. Hopefully it was exciting for the fans. What we were feeling in the race car is hopefully what the fans were feeling in the grandstands. What a race!”
Placing third was Brad Keselowski (No. 22 American Tire Dodge), who snuck by current NNS points leader Carl Edwards (No. 60 Copart Ford) on the final lap.
Fifth-place finisher Joey Logano (No. 20 GameStop/Mario Kart Toyota) appeared to have the race in hand leading 130 laps of the 150-lap race. But a surprise caution on lap 146 and brief bump by Biffle caused Logano to finish in fifth position.
After only two races, Edwards holds a slim series points lead over second-place Logano and third-place Busch.
After a rough introduction to stock car racing last week in Daytona, Danica Patrick (No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet) finished in 31st position in her second career start, marking the first time she has completed a NASCAR series race.
Brian Scott (No. 11, AccuDoc Solutions Toyota) was the highest finishing rookie on the day with a 10th-place finish.
Next up on the Auto Club Speedway’s schedule is Sunday’s Auto Club 500.
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