NASCAR O'Reilly
BUSCH: Kenseth ropes Texas win
Matt Kenseth hung back all afternoon, and snuck up on the competition late in the race to earn his 15th career Busch series win. Kenseth led the last six laps on his way to first series win of the season. "We had a real pushy race car all day ...
Edited: Apr 16, 2008, 12:40 AM
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Matt Kenseth hung back all afternoon, and snuck up on the competition late in the race to earn his 15th career Busch series win. Kenseth led the last six laps on his way to first series win of the season.
"We had a real pushy race car all day long," commented Kenseth in victory lane. "I am real surprised we won. We had great engines and decent pit stops. My saving grace is an awesome crew chief who gets these cars dialed in, he listens to me whine all day and still gets the car upfront."
With six laps to go, Matt Kenseth sailed by Bobby Hamilton, Jr. to take the lead of the race. An ensuing wreck behind the leaders froze the field giving Kenseth the advantage.
NASCAR red-flagged the event with four laps left to be completed, setting up a drag race between the top-three cars of Kenseth, Hamilton and pole sitter Kyle Busch. The field got racy under a single file restart, running one lap behind the pace car before the green flag flew with three to go.
Bobby Hamilton, Jr. spun his wheels on the restart and lost ground, as Kyle Busch and Robby Gordon both passed the No. 25 Ford. In the end, it was all Kenseth as the 2003 Cup series champion checked out to a 2 second lead over the field.
"It was a great duel with Bobby Jr.," said Kenseth. "It was great to race him."
Hamilton, Jr. freefell through the field, managing to salvage only a sixth place effort. "The car just stumbled," said Hamilton. "I don't know. But they will fix it."
A final lap caution froze the field, finishing the race under the yellow flag.
Kyle Busch led a race-high 147 laps, but began to fade with 22 laps left, as Hamilton, Jr. and Kenseth both managed to motor around the No. 5 Chevy. Busch landed in second place after Hamilton's bad restart.
"This team is an awesome team," Busch said. "We led the most laps and I am not sure what happened there in the end, if we lost the race track. But, I can't thank my team enough. They are a championship caliber team.
"It's just a matter of time before everything comes together and we make it to that number one spot."
Robby Gordon was third, grabbing his second top-three result of the season.
"The Busch season has been good," said Gordon. "Right now it's helping me build momentum for the other side."
Gordon is optimistic for his run tomorrow in his No. 31 RCR Cup car, "Yesterday it was a one groove racetrack and today it was two grooves."
Johnny Benson and Jason Leffler complete the top five.
"We knew we had a pretty good car," said Benson, who scored his best finish of the season. "Today was the day, it was good."
Kevin Harvick led Busch series points, but did not start this event. Therefore, David Green inherits the top spot, 17 points over Martin Truex, Jr. Michael Waltrip (-46), Kyle Busch (-74) and Robby Gordon (-89) complete the top five in series standings.
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