Nationwide Series – Dollar General 300

Kyle Busch ended an 11 race winless streak Friday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway!

Feeling fine after suffering from the flu last week, Kyle Busch cruised in front of the field en route to his 7th victory of the season.

Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR

Busch dominated under the lights leading a race high 137 of 200 laps in Friday night’s Nationwide Series race.

“I felt like we were in another zip code tonight,” Busch said. It was his 26th top-10 finish this season. With the win Friday night, Busch broke the tie he shared with Jeff Burton for 4th on the all-time Nationwide Series win list. He’s currently 3 wins away from Jack Ingram for 3rd place on that all-time series win list. Busch is primed for his first NASCAR Nationwide Series championship.

Kyle had to get out of the car during last weekend’s Nationwide race at Auto Club Speedway due to a case of the flu that eventually turned into walking pneumonia. He turned the car over to his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin on lap 39. The move ended up costing him some valuable championship points as Hamlin suffered a DNF from a nasty wreck after getting sandwiched between Brad Keselowski and Greg Biffle while going for the lead.

“Denny got caught up in a mess I don’t know if any of us could have gotten out of,” Busch said. “He could have won the race and almost won the race for us, but unfortunately we lost some points.” With only 4 races remaining on the schedule, Busch gained a valuable 40 points Friday night to extend his points lead to 195 points over 2nd place, Carl Edwards.

“This is my house. At least on the Nationwide side,” Busch said as he made reference to the fact that Lowe’s Motor Speedway is often called “Jimmie’s House” due to 3-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson’s track record of 4 consecutive Sprint Cup wins from 2004-2005.

With rain moving widely through the area, the showers unbelievably held off long enough to squeeze in all 200 laps. The weather may have played a significant factor in a majority of the drivers’ race strategy.

Polesitter Carl Edwards finished 5th. He’s the one that has been chasing Busch down for the series championship. “Cousin Carl’s” Roush Fenway Racing teammate, Matt Kenseth started the race beside him on the front row. Kenseth lead early on for 25 laps, but was involved in a bad wreck on lap 70 and wound up finishing 33rd.

Series regular Mike Bliss scored a runner-up finish followed by Dave Blaney, Brian Vickers, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Jeff Burton and Tony Raines completed the top-10.

Brad Keselowski ended a streak of eight top-5 finishes with his 6th place finish. It has already been announced that he’ll leave JR Motorsports at the end of the season to move to Penske Racing in the Sprint Cup Series.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here.

There were 6 cautions for 31 laps and 12 lead changes among 8 drivers:  0; M. Kenseth 1-21; K. Busch 22-56; K. Kahne 57; M. Kenseth 58-60; J. Burton 61-63; T. Stewart 64; K. Wallace 65; J. Burton 66-86; K. Busch 87-133; B. Vickers 134-141; J. Logano 142-145; K. Busch 146-200