Kyle Busch rolls in Nationwide feature at Indy
Indianapolis — Kyle Busch had a commanding lead wiped out with one ill-timed caution.
He snagged it back just in time to extend his dominant run in the Nationwide Series — and seal his latest win with a kiss.
Busch was the newest driver to kiss the bricks, leading 92 of 100 laps Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
He turned his baseball cap around, dropped to his hands and knees, and planted a big one on the bricks. How’d they taste? “Like bricks,” he said. Busch even gave the bricks a celebratory slap. Not bad after a late scare off a restart dropped him to third with six laps left and nearly turned Brian Scott into the surprise winner.
Busch fell back after some hard racing with Joey Logano that almost wiped out his near-flawless racing. But his Toyota was the fastest car all day and he roared back to take the lead with three laps left. He won for the eighth time in 15 races this season.
He took his usual bow before he grabbed the checkered flag. Then, off to the bricks.
“It’s Indianapolis. It’s pretty awesome to be able to win here, whether you are driving Nationwide or Cup, sports cars, Formula One, MotoGP, anything,” he said. “It’s pretty cool, this place, with the history and all the automobiles that have raced on this surface and the surfaces before it. And all the fans who have been here over the years, it’s awesome.”
Busch won from the pole and gave Toyota its first NASCAR win at Indianapolis and second ever at the track.
Scott had a career- best second- place finish. Logano was third. Brian Vickers finished fourth and picked up a $100,000 bonus from Nationwide as the highest finishing driver in the “Dash 4 Cash” program.
Busch said he had “no friends” on the final restart following a debris caution when he got scraped by Logano.
“Brian got by me, and I had to go to work,” Busch said. “Had to put the driver hat on to run him down and get back past him. He was doing a lot of blocking, running a line we don’t usually run to take the air, which is what you are supposed to do.”