Friday, April 2, 2010

Busch Plays Solo to Win Nashville Truck Race


Photo Credit: John Sommers II/Getty Images for NASCAR

For the first time in 2010, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series ran on consecutive weekends after running on the short track of Martinsville Speedway. In the end of the 150 lap event on the 1.33 mile Nashville Superspeedway, Kyle Busch claimed his first win with his own race equipment holding off an unsuccessful late race charge from Kevin Harvick. Debuting at Daytona this year, it took only 4 races for Busch to find victory lane as an owner/driver by dominated the Camping World Truck Series' Nashville 200 on Friday night.

A great win for Kyle Busch and Kyle Busch Motorsports, the Nashville 200 was overall a very hum-drum event. In fact, for the rest of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series field, the Nashville 200 ran like an old country song. With all but 8 trucks on the lead lap, even trucks on the lead lap could only vaguely contend against the Dollar General juggernaut. Not helping matters for the competitors was that only 2 cautions slowed the Nashville Superspeedway truck race. Considering the barn-burning action first 3 races of the 2010 Camping World Truck Series season, the Nashville 200 was off-tempo for excitement.

With only 5 lead changes between 3 drivers, Daytona truck race winner Timothy Peters driving his #17 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra provided the only sustained challenge to the dominant Busch leading 17 laps. As the race progressed however, Peters lost touch with the #18 truck but still wound up in a 4th place finish by the end of the event. The #30 Germain Racing Toyota of Todd Bodine would also lead for two laps under a pit stop exchange. For the balance of the race, Busch's #18 Dollar General Toyota led 131 laps around the 1.33 mile concrete oval racing surface.
In all, Toyota Tundras lead every single lap of the Nashville 200.



Photo Credit: John Sommers II/Getty Images for NASCAR

In the closing laps Kyle Busch did encounter some grief with lapped traffic, aiding the efforts of the #2 Chevrolet truck of Kevin Harvick in chasing down the #18 Toyota. However, running side-by-side through one of the latter laps of Nashville, Harvick charged below Busch down the backstretch. Under attack, Kyle Busch was actually able to get lapped traffic to work in his favour as a low-running back-marker provided the #18 with a so-called pick against the #2 Chevrolet. Into turn 3, approaching the lapped vehicle, Harvick needed to backed off.

Going onto victory, Kyle Busch returns to the victory lane where in the NASCAR Nationwide Series last June he did his best Pete Townshend impression by breaking the unique Sam Bass-designed Gibson guitar trophy. To the silent relieve of Sam Bass and to Gibson guitar fans, the Kyle Busch's 2010 trophy left the victory lane ceremonies intact. Of course, the fact that this year's Gibson guitar marks Kyle Busch Motorsports' first truck win might have installed some sentimentality into the usually out-spoken NASCAR driver.

With the top 2 trucks piloted by driver/owner individuals, Kevin Harvick Incorporated primary driver Ron Hornaday Jr secured 3rd place on the #33 Chevrolet. His 2nd straight top-5 finish, Hornaday Jr is attempting a truck series title defense after crashing out of the first two events. 5th through 10th place in the Nashville 200 truck race has Todd Bodine, Matt Crafton, Mike Skinner, Aric Almirola, Stacy Compton and Rick Crawford crossing the line in that order.

As before mentioned, Timothy Peters came in 4th at Nashville making the driver the only competitor to achieve a top-10 in every NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event for 2010. Rewarded by his own consistency, Peters holds an 82 point lead in the series overall standings over Aric Almirola.


2010 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Nashville 200 at Nashville Superspeedway
Race Results

Pos # | Truck # | Driver | Sponsor/ Car Make
1 18 Kyle Busch        Dollar General Toyota
2 2 Kevin Harvick Charter Communications Chevrolet
3 33 Ron Hornaday Jr. Longhorn Chevrolet
4 17 Timothy Peters Crescent Tools/Red Horse Racing Toyota
5 30 Todd Bodine Germain.com Toyota
6 88 Matt Crafton Menards/Ideal Door Chevrolet
7 5 Mike Skinner International Trucks/Monaco RV Toyota
8 51 Aric Almirola Graceway Pharmaceuticals Toyota
9 60 Stacy Compton Safe Auto Insurance/Wyler.com Chevrolet
10 14 Rick Crawford Circle Bar Ford
11 13 Johnny Sauter In Country Television/Curb Records Chevrolet
12 15 Steve Wallace Red Top Collector Car Auction Toyota
13 90 James Buescher Great Clips Toyota
14 3 Austin Dillon Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Chevrolet
15 4 Ricky Carmichael Monster Energy Chevrolet


Other Notables

18 29 Brad Keselowski Brad Keselowski Racing Dodge
21 12 Mario Gosselin TireMonkey.com/James Carter Attorney Chevrolet
25 10 Jennifer Jo Cobb driverboutique.com Ford
26 92 Dennis Setzer BTS Tire & Wheel Chevrolet

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