NASCAR Nationwide Series Press Releases

August 23, Bristol, TN--- Brian Scott finished 25th in the Food City 250 on Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. The result did not quite show the effort however, as the Boise, ID native was running eighth with just 14 short laps to go.

Starting 30^th after falling victim to a hot, slick racetrack in qualifying, Scott had a lot of work ahead of him to get the No. 11 AccuDoc Solutions Camry to the front. He wasted no time at the drop of the green flag. Picking up four spots in seven laps, Scott was silent on the radio. Focused, he picked up nine more by the time the first yellow flag flew on lap 55.

Scott reported to the crew that the car turned well at the center of the corner but needed a little drive off the corner. Crew chief, Jeff Stankiewicz, ordered two tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. The two-tire call picked up the 22-year-old Scott seven more positions to restart the race in 10^th. Back green, the race would see different pit strategies developing.

Running eighth at lap 117, Scott came down pit road very happy with his racecar. Stankiewicz fired four tires, fuel and a slight air pressure adjustment at the AccuDoc Solutions Toyota, setting Scott up for a run to the end. Restarting in 18^th, Scott knew the cars in front of him would eventually have to pit. Back to work under the green flag, Scott picked up 11 positions to run seventh on lap 163.

A series of caution flags over the next fifty laps had Scott picking his way through the jumbled restarts. Narrowly missing cars wrecking on Bristol’s treacherous high banks, Scott sat seventh with just 25 laps to go. Racing hard late in the race, Scott battled side by side for every position. A restart with just 14 laps to go set Scott up in eighth spot.

When the green flag fell, Scott made a move to the outside of another car. Just as he did, that car lost the handle and made contact with Scott, sending the No. 11 AccuDoc Solutions Camry into the outside retaining wall. He came down pit road to repair the damage. Going a lap down, he completed the remaining 12 laps and finish 25^th.

“Man that’s disappointing,” Scott said after the race. “Everyone on the Braun Racing AccuDoc Solutions team did such a great job tonight. That’s the toughest race I’ve ever run and to not have anything to show for it is hard to swallow. We were fast tonight. The AccuDoc Solutions Camry was great and I am really proud of our effort. I would have liked to have brought home a top-10 run for these guys tonight. We’ll go back to the shop and prepare for Montreal.”

This 25th place finish puts Scott 13th in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship standings, 49 points out of 12th and 1324 points from the lead.

Next Stop: The NASCAR Nationwide Series heads to Montreal this weekend for the NAPA Auto Parts 200. The Sunday afternoon race will be broadcast LIVE on ESPN2 starting at 2:00 p.m. EST. The green flag is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. EST.

Joey Logano Recovers from Late-Race Spin to Record Top-10 Finish at Bristol Motor Speedway

August 22, Bristol, TN--- Joey Logano and the No. 20 GameStop team looked like they were in the driver’s seat to earn their second win of the season with just a handful of laps to go in Friday night’s Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway. However, a late-race tangle with another car sent Logano spinning with just 25 laps to go and forced the GameStop team to scramble just to come back and record a hard-fought 10^th place finish.

Logano started off the afternoon by nearly picking up his fifth pole of the season until getting knocked off of the top spot late in the qualifying session by Elliott Sadler. Despite starting second and on the less-preferred inside-lane, Logano got the jump as the green-flag waved at the famed high-banked half-mile track and led the race’s first 30 laps before being passed by Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch.

The No. 20 GameStop Toyota became extremely tight, and Logano slipped back to the latter-half of the top 10 for much of the race’s middle stages while Crew Chief Kevin Kidd devised a plan to get Logano fixed up and back to the front. After several changes to the car, Logano started making his charge back to the top, breaking back into the top five by lap 167 and eventually into third place on lap 182.

Logano was following leader Brad Keselowski and Busch when the two made contact, causing Keselowski to spin and Busch to get into the outside wall. Restarting second with just 25 laps to go, Logano knew that he had an opportunity and a better car to get by Busch on the restart and possibly grab his second win of the year. However, on the ensuing restart, Logano got tagged and spun from behind by Jason Leffler, turning him around in front of the entire field. Luckily, Logano was able to keep the car off the wall and out of harms way. However, the team had to pit for four fresh tires and restarted the race in 19^th.

Logano was able to drive up from 19^th to 10^th in the race’s final 20 laps, marking his 13^th-straight NASCAR Nationwide Series race with a top-10 finish. Busch went on to record his 10^th win of the season.

“I’m disappointed. That is really all I can say. We had the car to win the race there at the end. We had made improvements, and the car was driving great. I was catching Brad and Kyle and when they got into it, I knew that was my opportunity. I knew that we would be able to battle with Kyle for the win in those final 20 laps and have a good shot for the win. Then, we just flat got wrecked on the restart. We got a little loose, and he never checked up and turned us around. We were lucky not to get hit by any other cars or to hit the wall. So we came in, put some tires on it and just tried to get the best finish that we could. But this was no 10^th place car. This was a race-winning or at least a second-place GameStop Toyota.

“Kevin and the guys did a good job and making the car better as the race was going on. We were good in clean air, but when we got behind some cars or in lapped traffic, the car got really tight. We fought and fought the tight condition, then got it good for the end. In the last-half of the race, we were the fastest car on the track lap after lap, and we were catching the front guys. So we felt good and knew we had a shot at it. But, that’s how it played out. I’m not happy about it, but there is nothing you can do. The car was better then a 10^th place finish, but unfortunately, the final results won’t show that.”

“We really just need to find a way to get this monkey off of our back. It seemed like we had so much bad luck and just couldn’t get the breaks to go our way early in the year and then we finally won at Kentucky and figured that would turn everything around. Now, that bad luck is back. Honestly, this is just one of about five races or so this year that we were the best car and we should have won, but things just happen. The car is fast every week and Joey is a great driver, but I guess sometimes you can’t control the outside influences like flat tires or mistakes by other drivers.

“The one good thing is that getting this close just makes the guys work that much harder and makes Joey just drive that much harder. You come this close to winning so many times, you just say ‘I’ve had enough, let’s get this done.’ I think that attitude will propel us back into Victory Lane soon, and we’ll be able to get back on our game. We just need to keep doing what we do every week, which is give Joey the best car we can and let him do the rest.”

The No. 20 GameStop Toyota will go “north of the border” next week to race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal for the Napa Auto Parts 200. It will make Joey’s second trip to the road course. He raced there in his rookie season of 2008 and finished 17^th.

Busch Performs Own Rendition of Bristol Stomp
Z-Line Designs Driver Bumps His Way to 10^th NASCAR Nationwide Series Victory of 2010

August 20, Bristol, TN--- The beating and banging that has epitomized racing at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway is back, and the man who brought it back was none other than Kyle Busch. The driver of the No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) scored his 10^th NASCAR Nationwide Series win of the season when he took the checkered flag in Friday night’s Food City 250 after bumping Brad Keselowski out of the way on lap 219 of the 250-lap race.

The two combatants were the class of the field, with Keselowski leading three times for 62 laps and Busch leading three times for a race-high 116 laps. Keselowski held the point from lap 162 to 218, but after doggedly pursuing the championship leader, Busch finally made his way past Keselowski in between turns one and two. But as soon as Busch’s No. 18 Z-Line Designs machine got in front of Keselowski on the backstretch, the nose of Keselowski’s Dodge nudged the rear bumper of Busch’s Toyota, sending Busch scraping along the wall. Busch never let off the throttle and quickly snuck in behind Keselowski as they entered turn three, and just before turn four, Busch reached Keselowski and nosed his Toyota into the back of Keselowski, sending him spinning, with the rear of Keselowski’s Dodge contacting the outside wall.

Busch motored on, and with the exception of two late-race restarts where he was briefly challenged by Elliott Sadler, Busch checked out to collect his second Nationwide Series win at Bristol.

“I raced and raced and raced him (Keselowski), I don’t know for 12, 15 laps, and my Z-Line Designs Camry was pretty awesome tonight,” said Busch, who is two for two this week at Bristol, as he won Wednesday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at the .533-mile oval and has a chance to go three for three if he scores a win in Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. “I thought I had him cleared on the back and I moved up in front of him, and instead of him doing an Earnhardt crossover move he decided that he would just run into the back of me and put me in the fence. So, that’s Brad Keselowski. So, you know, I went down into the next corner and dumped him. He does it to everybody else. Why can’t I do it to him?”

The victory was Busch’s 10^th Nationwide Series win this season, tying him with the mark set by Sam Ard during his championship run in 1983 and tied by Busch in 2008. It was also Busch’s 40^th career Nationwide Series victory, inching him ever closer to the all-time Nationwide Series win total of 48 set by Mark Martin.

“It was a pretty good race for us,” Busch said. “We had trouble in practice trying to get the car exactly the way I wanted it. We were close, but Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) worked really hard with the guys to try and make sure that we had a winning car here tonight. We were swinging things at it all day. We came up with a good combination there for the race. It was a little too loose all night, but I kept trying to move my line around and try to find something that would work for me, and I was able to do that a little bit. Had good pit stops and just being able to keep our track position all night really helped us so we didn’t have to pass too much. Just getting up there at the end and being able to set sail when it mattered most and get to victory lane.

“I can’t thank Z-Line Designs enough and Jim and Monica Sexton – they’re awesome. It’s fun to come over here and race. I enjoy it, and of course it’s cool to put this 18 car in victory lane.”

Busch’s 116 laps led marked the 19^th race where he’s led at least one lap this season. His 2010 laps-led tally stands at an impressive 1,492. The only race where he’s failed to lead a lap came last Saturday at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, where he still finished third. Busch broke the series record for laps led in June at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, where he led six times for a race-high 125 laps en route to the win. The previous record-holder was Martin with 8,082 laps led. With his win at Bristol, Busch pushed his laps-led total to 8,729.

Chassis No. 1861 – the car Busch used in Friday night’s win – is responsible for 1,049 of those laps. It is a workhorse that debuted in 2007 and in 16 career starts has notched eight victories – three at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., two at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth and one each at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Dover (Del.) International Speedway and Bristol.

“This car has won everywhere. This baby, it’s an awesome race car,” said Busch about the racecar that has won at every style of track except a road course and a restrictor-plate track.

Despite not running the full Nationwide Series schedule, Busch remained third in the championship standings, 434 points behind Keselowski. Busch sat out a string of standalone events in June at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway, Kentucky Speedway in Sparta and Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., as well as the series’ July stop at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill.

While Busch is not running the full Nationwide Series schedule, JGR’s No. 18 Toyota is competing for the owner’s title. It maintained its spot atop the standings, increasing its advantage to 73 points over the No. 22 car of Penske Racing. JGR has won the past two Nationwide Series owner’s championships.

Jason Leffler finished .798 of a second behind Busch in the runner-up spot, while Sadler, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Carl Edwards rounded-out the top-five. Trevor Bayne finished sixth, with Clint Bowyer, Reed Sorenson, Parker Kligerman and Busch’s JGR teammate Joey Logano comprising the remainder of the top-10.

There were eight caution periods for 48 laps, with 11 drivers failing to finish.

The next event on the Nationwide Series schedule is the Aug. 29 NAPA Auto Parts 200 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve road course in Montreal. Brad Coleman will pilot the No. 18 Toyota while Busch takes the weekend off. The race starts at 2:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with its pre-race show at 2 p.m.

August 20, Bristol, TN--- BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Charger) Finished 14th
"We had an awesome Discount Tire Dodge. We ran a heck of a race. We got up to the front legitimately. I’m proud of my team for that and then we got intentionally wrecked. It is what it is. We'll go to work and work on beating his (Kyle's) ass.

“Early in the race, I had the lead on a restart and he ran me up the track in (Turns) 3 and 4 and I lifted, gave him the lane there when I didn’t have too. Just being a good guy, because I’m a member of the good guy club. But when the end of the race comes, man you don’t let people in line. They ought to know better than try and take it. That answers it all right there. I’m on probation for racing hard and that allows everyone to intentionally wreck me. We made good moves in the race and worked our way to the front. We had a great car. The fans saw what happened. He’ll get his.

“Just hard racing man. I was going for it. I was on the outside, he was on the inside, and he got a great run through (Turns) 1 and 2. He did a good job. He got up…almost cleared me and kind of took for granted that I would let him in line and I didn’t. That’s his right; nothing to complain about. We’re going to keep working on our Discount Tire Dodge for next week, the week after and every other week.”

DID BEING ON PROBATION COME INTO YOUR MINDSET AFTER THE INCIDENT WITH THE 18? “Oh yeah, absolutely. I was certainly aware of it. I just go to work and not let it (the incident) change the way that I drive even after the contact I had with the 18.”

PARKER KLIGERMAN (No. 42 Dodge Charger) Finished 9th
“It’s a testament to all the guys on this Team 42 crew. There are three guys in the shop that are working their tails off preparing our cars. I said it after the first practice and I said it before the race, no matter where we finish, these guys are champions in my eyes. To come out here and punch way above my weight with Cup drivers and Cups teams is a great feeling. I just have to thank everyone at Team 42 and Penske for giving me a great Dodge Charger tonight.”

JUSTIN ALLGAIER (No. 12 Verizon Wireless Dodge Charger) Finished 33rd
"Man, what a tough break for this Verizon Wireless Dodge team. They gave me such a great race car tonight. We got into Kasey (Kahne) early in the race and that set us back. When you get behind the eight ball, you try so hard to get back to the front. We got back out there and things got tight. It looks like the 35 car got into us. I think that he thought that I was going to the bottom and they just ran into us. It's a shame. This was one fast Dodge Charger and my guys didn't deserve this kind of finish. That's racing at Bristol. Sometimes fate does you in and tonight was one of those days."

August 20 Bristol, TN--- After spinning his strongest challenger on Lap 219, Kyle Busch held off Jason Leffler and polesitter Elliott Sadler through a spate of cautions in the closing laps to win Friday night’s Food City 250 Nationwide Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Busch won his 10th Nationwide race of the year, tying the single-season record he already shared with Sam Ard. The victory was Busch’s 40th in the series, but it was not without controversy.

Busch can complete an unprecedented sweep of three races at one track in NASCAR's top three touring series with a victory in Saturday’s Sprint Cup Series Irwin Tools Night Race. Busch won Bristol’s Camping World Truck Series race Wednesday night.

Keselowski and Busch battled ferociously for the lead during the final quarter of the race, and that heated contest produced the sixth caution of the event. On Lap 219, Busch slid past Keselowski for the lead off Turn 2 but bobbled slightly down the backstretch.

Busch’s No. 18 Toyota clipped the wall after contact from Keselowski’s Dodge, and as the cars rolled through Turn 4, Busch spun his adversary in the corner, forcing Keselowski to pit to repair the damage to his car. Keselowski finished 14th.

“It is what it is,” Keselowski said. “I’m going to go to work—and work on beating his ass.”

Busch admitted he spun Keselowski on purpose.

“I thought I had him cleared on the back, and I moved up in front of him, and instead of him doing an Earnhardt crossover move, he just decided that he would run into the back of me and put me in the fence,” Busch said. “That’s Brad Keselowski. So I went into the next corner and dumped him.

“He does it to everybody else. Why can’t I do it to him?”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. rallied from a lap down to finish fourth behind Leffler and Sadler. Carl Edwards ran fifth. Trevor Bayne, Clint Bowyer, Reed Sorenson, Parker Kligerman and Joey Logano completed the top 10.

Edwards, second in the series standings, trimmed Keselowski’s lead to 313 points. On the strength of his 10 victories in 20 starts, Busch remained third in points, 434 behind Keselowski, despite having competed in four fewer races than either Keselowski or Edwards.

The race featured a wild accident on Lap 83, when contract from Justin Allgaier’s Dodge sent Kasey Kahne’s No. 38 Toyota sliding on its side along the outside wall for approximately 200 yards.

Notes: Busch gave Toyota its 50th Nationwide win. … Busch won in chassis 61, which has accounted for eight victories in 10 starts. … Busch’s 40 wins have come in 193 starts. He is second to Mark Martin, who has 48 wins in 231 starts.

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