Checkers and wreckers Friday night as Kyle Busch took the win at Chicagoland! Busch easily held off his team mate Joey Logano on a green-white-checker finish for a series leading seventh win of the season.

photo credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR

Busch dominated the race leading 110 of the race’s 203 total laps, but the win didn’t come too easily for him. Starting eighth, Busch quickly took the lead for the first time on lap 10. After the first round of pit stops, he was penalized for speeding on pit road and had to restart at the tail end of the lead lap cars. Once again, Busch had to work his way back to the front only to lose the lead to Logano with 52 laps remaining. It was a similar scenario last year, but Logano was able to secure the win.

“It wasn’t easy. We didn’t have the track position when it mattered, and the car got really, really tight. But these guys didn’t give up,” Busch said. “I knew I couldn’t spin my tires and knew I couldn’t let him (referring to Joey Logano) force me too high. It was dirty up there. I was able to keep it low enough to stay out of that and get in front of Joey.”

It’s the 37th series win for Busch, second on the all-time win list behind Mark Martin’s 48 victories.

It didn’t sound like a popular win as fans booed Busch from the grandstands. “I don’t know if they didn’t like my burn-out or they’re not Busch fans,” Busch said in Victory Lane. The win was sure to be popular with his fiance’s family and friends, who are from close-by in the area.

For the runner-up, Joey Logano lead twice for 51 laps. “Kyle just did a good job,” Logano said. “He did what he was supposed to. He door-jammed me into the turn and got me loose. He beat me. I’m embarrassed more than anything else.”

Points leader Brad Keselowski ran out of gas just as the field was about to take the green flag for the final restart. Even after starting second and spending the entire evening in the top-10, Keselowski had to settle for a 21st place finish. “Momma said there would be days like this,” Keselowski said. “I ran out of gas here last year which broke my string of top-10 finishes and I’ll be damned if I didn’t do it again.”

Keselowski now leads the standings by 227 points over 2nd place driver, Carl Edwards. Edwards finished sixth and was credited with leading one lap.

Rookie Brian Scott finished third followed by David Reutimann, Jason Leffler, Edwards, polesitter Harvick, Reed Sorenson, Jamie McMurray and Justin Allgaier inside the top-10.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

There were 5 cautions for 20 laps and 14 lead changes among 7 drivers: K. Harvick 1-9; K. Busch 10-55; Brad Keselowski 56; C. Edwards 57; J. Allgaier 58-59; Brad Keselowski 60-80; K. Busch 81-134; Brad Keselowski 135-136; J. Allgaier 137-138; B. Gaughan 139; K. Busch 140-147; J. Logano 148-187; Brad Keselowski 188-190; J. Logano 191-201; K. Busch 202-203

Danica Patrick scored her best finish in her fifth race after finishing 24th, two laps down. She lost a lap early and then would have to make an unscheduled pit stop for a flat tire with four laps remaining.

photo credit: Andy Lyons/Getty Images

“I definitely learned a lot,” Patrick said. “It was really nice to run a clean race with no accidents, really, especially in the first part. It’s so tough when you spin at the beginning of the race, but we didn’t do that, so we just trucked along.”

The series will head to Gateway International Raceway next Saturday, July 19th.