Kyle Busch Nests One Dozen Nationwide Win of 2010 in California

Photo Credit: Tom Pennington/ Getty Images for NASCAR

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(October 9, 2010)

FONTANA, Calif.— Kyle Busch’s pit crew may well deserve the credit for winning Saturday’s CampingWorld.com 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Auto Club Speedway.

To Kevin Harvick, on the other hand, there was little doubt that his pit crew lost it.

Strong on short runs but no match for Harvick on longer ones, Busch rallied from a pit-road speeding penalty to beat NASCAR Nationwide points leader Brad Keselowski to the finish line by 1.034 seconds.

The victory was Busch’s 12th of the year (extending his single-season record), his fourth at the 2-mile track and the 42nd of his career—leaving him six behind series leader Mark Martin in career wins.

Harvick ran third, despite leading a race-high 86 laps. Carl Edwards, second in the series standings, came home fourth and trails Keselowski by 384 points with five races left. Joey Logano finished fifth.

Busch, who was penalized for speeding while entering pit road under caution on Lap 87, won for the third time this year after incurring a speeding penalty.

Danica Patrick saw a promising run spoiled when contact from James Buescher turned her No. 7 Chevrolet into the wall on Lap 141 of 150 to cause the sixth and final caution. Patrick was running 17th at the time, hoping for her first lead-lap finish in her eighth NASCAR Nationwide start, but the wreck relegated her to a 30th-place result.

Pit work on Lap 126 turned the race in Busch’s favor, after a 12.8-second stop got him away with the lead. Harvick’s crew had its third poor stop of the afternoon, leaving the driver of the No. 33 Chevrolet in sixth position for a restart on Lap 134.

Two cautions that punctuated the final 17 laps helped prevent Harvick from challenging Busch for the lead.

"The pit stops were what got us there," Busch said, "just being able to have the guys give us a good pit stop on that last time and get out front when it mattered most and kind of set sail on the restarts.

"Harvick had a really, really good car on long runs. He showed that today—he probably had the best car. We could keep up with him for about eight or 10 laps, but after that, he started getting away from us."

After the race, Harvick praised the team that prepared his car at his race shop and blasted his over-the-wall pit crew.

"The guys have done a great job in transitioning to some new setup packages and doing the things they need to do to make them fast—and those are the guys I feel the worst for," Harvick said. "We’ve got guys that just roll up on the weekend and just flat-out aren’t doing a very good job on pit road."

2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series 
Auto Club Speedway
Campingworld.Com 300
Race Results

1. 18 Kyle Busch NOS Energy Drink Toyota 
2. 22 Brad Keselowski America's Tire Dodge
3. 33 Kevin Harvick Jimmy John's Chevrolet
4. 60 Carl Edwards Copart Ford 150
5. 20 Joey Logano GameStop/Triton Toyota
6. 88 Aric Almirola GT Vodka Chevrolet
7. 1 Ryan Newman El Monterey Chevrolet
8. 12 Justin Allgaier Verizon Wireless Dodge
9. 40 Mike Bliss Key Motorsports Chevrolet 
10. 32 Reed Sorenson Dollar General Toyota

Other Notables

11. 17 Trevor Bayne Roush-Fenway Ford
13.  16 Colin Braun # Con-way Ford
15.  09 Brian Scott # Shore Lodge Ford
29.  6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. # Blackwell Angus Ford
30.  7 Danica Patrick Tissot/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet

Super Soggy Suzuka Caps Saturday F1 Action: Qualifying to be held Sunday

Day 2 of the Japanese Grand Prix has amounted to a full wash-out due to heavy precipitation. Perhaps better identified as 'Wipeout Japan', an estimated daily accumulation totaling nearly 50 millimeters of rain made the Formula 1 cars stay garage-dwelling for the duration of Saturday. Even with full wet weather tires, the presence of standing water on the Suzuka Circuit made the conditions impossible to for those Bridgestone tires to obtain any grip.

Delayed as rain fell, Formula 1 officials were eventually faced with the only sensible solution was to postpone the qualifying session for the Japanese Grand Prix to Sunday morning. Though the precipitation is excepted to continue through Saturday night into race day, there is expectations that the rain will let up into the day.

Prior to choice to postpone qualifying, an early Saturday practice session proceeded with little participation. In the 3rd practice session, only two cars recorded lap times eager to get the names of their respective teams and drivers at the top of a Formula 1 speed chart in 2010. The Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso in the hands of Jaime Alguersuari tip-toed around the wet 3.609 mile Suzuka track with a 1 minute, 55.902 second lap time. Second-fastest (only fastest rather loosely) was the Virgin-Cosworth piloted by Timo Glock running almost 11.6 seconds below the pace of Alguersuari.

As qualifying will be scheduled just three hours before the start of the race, teams at the Japanese Grand Prix will be busy during a packed and likely still wet Sunday.

Day 1 for Japanese Grand Prix: Vettel Rumbles, Hamilton Stumbles

Photo Credit: Mercedes GP

After a wild night Grand Prix of Singapore two weeks ago, world championship points leader Mark Webber and the Red Bull Racing team leads the 2010 Formula 1 pilots into Suzuka, Japan. Becoming a definite crunch time for the 2010 Formula 1 season, the driver and manufacturer's point races heading into Japan are so close into the final races that the standings can still be dramatically reshaped after a single event. Webber leads by an 11-point margin over recently red-hot Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso.

Known as a very technical and challenging track, the 3.609 mile Suzuka Circuit, the Honda-owned race complex has history for being a deciding event in the Formula 1 driver's championship. Still in contention 21 points behind his Red Bull Racing teammate Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel showed in both Friday practices he was willing to meet the challenge in becoming a firm fighter for the 2010 title. The fastest in both sessions, the Red Bull-Renault's 1 minute, 32.585 second time in the first practice was bettered with an 1 minute, 31.465 second lap in the second afternoon session.

Backing up Vettel, Mark Webber timed laps competitive with his teammate as the 2nd fastest in the two practices. Showing the more elder teams of Ferrari and McLaren, Red Bull Racing is ready to end the year strong for what will be monumental acclaim.

Showing a consistent top-three in both sessions Friday, the Renault F1 Team's lead driver Robert Kubica was the 3rd fastest. With Kubica's expertise serving him well at the Suzuka circuit, his rookie teammate Vitaly Petrov approached the track as anew lesson. Having not raced on the Japanese race track prior to this grand prix weekend for Formula 1, Petrov rallied in the second practice session to a 7th overall time. Petrov's Renault was running softer Bridgestone optional tires for the run but nonetheless performed well on his first showing at Suzuka.

Also transitioning their way back from a unremarkable first practice effort, the Ferrari squad were without their blazing speed of recent grand prix weekends. With Brazilian Felipe Massa leading the team with an 11th quickest time in the early practice, the later practice saw Fernando Alonso leading a 4th and 5th fastest result.

Day 1 at the Suzuka Circuit became the setting for a multitude of missteps by Formula 1 drivers. Highlighting the action of first practice session, Lewis Hamilton Friday ended in turn 9 when his McLaren-Mercedes slid off track. Making hard contact with the retaining barrier, the McLaren's left side suspension sustained heavy damage in the impact. Though Hamilton was unhurt, his was sidelined through the rest of the first as well as into practice session two as the McLaren F1 team worked to repair the valuable open wheel race machine. Hamilton did return for 8 laps on the afternoon practice placing 13th fastest. Prior to his crash in the morning, Lewis Hamilton's car was 5th quickest.
In the second session, rapidly cooling track condition into the later part of the day robbed the Suzuka circuit of the more opportune grip of the first practice. several drivers experienced difficulty keeping their 300-plus kilometer per hour race cars on the track. Michael Schumacher, Robert Kubica and even fastest driver of the day Sebastian Vettel had moments of anxiety as they drifted off track.

A 3rd and final practice as well as Formula 1 qualifying are planned for Saturday within what is forecasted to be very wet weather.