CONCORD, N.C. — It took more than an hour for the track to dry enough for the Nationwide Series cars to begin the Carquest Auto Parts 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway and before the night was over rain would again fall and cut the race short by 30-laps — leaving Mike Bliss and the Miccosukee Indian Gaming & Resort Chevrolet sitting at the front of the field.
In fact, Bliss was one of only a dozen cars on the lead lap because of an ill-timed yellow flag that came out as most cars were cycling green flag pit stops. The caution caught even the fastest cars of the night off guard and forced one of NASCAR quirky restarts, where the leader was actually mid-pack in the field behind a gaggle of cars trying to stay on the lead lap.
"It ended up really good," Bliss said. "We stretched our fuel mileage a little bit, so I guess that's why we're here. We just stayed out one lap longer and it paid off."
Bliss said he wasn't aware that showers were on the way and he also wasn't aware that the No. 62 5-Hour Energy Drink Chevrolet driven Brendan Gaughan was the only other car ahead of the rest of the pack.
"I really didn't know Brendan was there until he got by me," Bliss said. "They said, 'that's your leader now.' So, when Brendan went by I knew I would get back by him but I was trying to take it a little bit conservative because I figured everybody was battling pretty dang hard in front. I had no idea there was any rain. When we went through one and two, there was a little bit and when we went back by there were five of us and we all went sideways and it came down pretty hard over there."
Gaughan said was ecstatic with his second-place finish and thanked his team for giving him good equipment. As far as the rain, he said he was glad to get a little good luck on his side considering bad things had been pestering the team recetly.
"Had a couple of flat tires and Goodyear makes great tires, we just ran over something on the racetrack," Guaghan said of his previous misfortunes. "We've had our share of bad luck and today I don't know how we did it."
A lot of drivers were less than thrilled when the skies opened up but one in particular saw his dominating run come to an early end. Kyle Busch drove from the back of the field to the lead in the first 35-laps of the race. But when the final caution came out and the rains began to fall, he was one of those cars that got caught after pitting. He restarted the race on point, leading the field to retake the green flag but he was actually in third-place at the time.
"I was very disappointed that we didn't get a win and the guys aren't able to celebrate themselves in Victory Lane for putting together the fastest car out there," Busch said. "But the NOS Enegry Drink Toyota was good — it was fast and circumstances just didn't hit our was tonight."
Feeling somewhat jinxed after missing out wins that he should have notched on his steering wheel, Busch was vocal about lady Luck turning her back on him recently.
"It's not just this series — it's every other series too," Busch said. "I had bad luck all week in the truck series — had bad luck with the All-Star race just not getting the right set-up there for the final 10 laps. Last week at Darlington was a bad one — both Cup and Nationwide. I don't even know where we were the week before — I think it was Talladega — wadded up two cars there. Just very, very frustrating to be one of the fastest cars week in and week out and not have anything to show for it."
But Busch does have something show for it. In fact, he has already amassed two wins in the Camping World Truck Series, three wins in the Nationwide Series and three wins in the Sprit Cup Series. A fact that didn't go over looked by a jubilant Bliss, who said he wasn't worried whether people feel like he stole the win.
"I don't care, got it from a guy who is winning too much anyway. We had a good enough car to run in the top three all night. Yeah, the 18 was a better car but he wins too much an nobody likes him," Bliss joked after the race.
Rounding out the Top 5 were Brian Vickers and Joey Logano, respectively.
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