Kyle Busch gets record-setting rowdy at Texas Motor Speedway


Credit: Debbie Ross/Skirts and Scuffs
Kyle Busch is a monster at Texas Motor Speedway. Seriously. 

Rowdy romped to yet another victory in the O'Reilly Auto Parts 300, leading 91 of the 200 laps and finishing 2.272 seconds ahead of Brad Keselowski. Austin Dillon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five. 

The victory was Busch's sixth career Nationwide win at the Great American Speedway, breaking a tie with Kevin Harvick. More importantly, it was his fourth of the season ... the first time in series history that a driver has won four of the first six races. 

I may have said this before, but I'll say it again. The Nationwide drivers better be glad that Rowdy Busch isn't eligible for points in the series. The other Nationwide owners have to be wishing that Busch hadn't returned to the Joe Gibbs Racing fold for their support series effort. The No. 54 team leads the owner points and Busch shows no signs of weakening, so NASCAR Nation probably should prepare to have the unusual circumstance of a different winner in the Drivers' Championship than in the Owners' Championship. 

Keselowski aptly summed up the night: "Put an elite driver in an elite car and you should get elite results, and that's what you had tonight."  

Six of the top-10 finishers were what were once known as Buschwhackers. The Nationwide Series doesn't lend itself to such clever nicknames, but the result is the same. Matt Kenseth finished sixth, with Regan Smith, Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers and Justin Allgaier in seventh through 10th, respectively. 

Tire management was the watchword of the night, with pit strategy playing a major role until a caution with 32 laps to go allowed everyone to get back on the same sequence. 

One particularly scary incident came when rookie Kyle Larson, who spun on lap 24, got back on track and was getting back up to speed when he blew a left-side tire. In a moment that looked to be shaping up like Juan Pablo Montoya and the jet dryer, he veered straight down to the inside fence where a track cleaning truck was driving a few feet off the fence. Larson steered between the truck and the fence, his quick reflexes preventing a potentially serious accident. 

For the full finishing order, click here.

For the championship points standings, click here.  


Janine, aka Lisa or LJ, Cloud, a fifth-generation Texan, lives in Houston and considers Texas Motor Speedway her home track.

She's been a part of the Skirts and Scuffs team since May 2011, going from contributor to media rep, photographer, and associate editor covering both NASCAR and IZOD IndyCar. Janine considers it a privilege to represent the site at the track and to share with readers the excitement of the world of motorsports.
Kyle Busch gets record-setting rowdy at Texas Motor Speedway  Kyle Busch gets record-setting rowdy at Texas Motor Speedway Reviewed by Janine Cloud on Saturday, April 13, 2013 Rating: 5