PHOTOS: O'Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway

Busch dominates at Texas Motor Speedway

Kyle Busch took off like he hadNitrous in the No. 18 NOS Energy Drink Toyota and dominated the first half of the race before being chased down for a brief period by Jeff Burton’s No. 29 Holiday Chevrolet.

But Burton couldn’t stay out front and Busch’s rocket ship regained the lead 16 laps later. Burton would be relegated to an 8^th place finish.

Tony Stewart made a late-race pit stop and brought the No. 33 Armor All Chevrolet from seventh to second but just didn’t have enough time to chase down Busch in the final laps. A bad call earlier in the race to forego swapping nine lap old tires with stickers ended up being the saving grace in the end and almost put Stewart in Victory Lane.

“I will be honest, I was surprised that with only nine laps on the tires that we would be in that bad of shape,” Stewart said after the race. “I never dreamed we would be so tight that early in the race. Having that last set of tires though really paid off for us. I probably should have anticipated the warmer weather and the track being tighter. I am really proud of the Armor All guys and Ernie Cope (crew chief).”

Busch’s victory made him the first ever driver to win a Nationwide Series race from the pole at Texas Motor Speedway. His dominance at TMS is undeniable with him leading 178 of 200 laps today and 478 of last 600 laps he has run at the track.

“First time that I haven’t done a burnout,” Busch said after getting out of the car and referencing a new rule from NASCAR that forces teams to reuse engines as a cost saving measure. He also raised a few eyebrows by somewhat imitating his brother reverse celebration from Atlanta two weeks ago. “I just backed up so I wouldn’t leave those guys out in Turn 1. I wasn’t doing a Kurt Busch thing.”

Busch said his car was strong, which was apparent by his dominance. This is the third straight win for Busch at TMS in the Nationwide Series.

"We really started off good and were really fast. The guys on pit road were also flawless today," Busch said. "We smoked them on pit road."

 

Finishing order from 4th through 43^rd:

David Ragan

Paul Menard

Matt Kenseth

Mike Bliss

Jeff Burton

David Reutimann

Justin Algair

Michael Annett

Joey Logano

Jason Leffler

Steve Wallace

Jason Keller

Scott Lagasse Jr.

Michael McDowell

Carl Edwards

Michael Waltrips

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Kenny Wallace

Tony Raines

Brandon Whitt

Robert Richardson Jr.

Kenny Hendrick

Peyton Sellers

Casey Atwood

Morgan Shepherd

Danny O’Quinn Jr.

David Green

Kevin Hamlin

Shelby Howard

Kevin LePage

Eric McClure

Burney Lamar

John Wes Townley

Brendan Gaughan

Brian Keselowski

Joe Nemechek

J.C. Stout

Andy Ponstein

Terry Cook

Johnny Chapman

Starting line-up for Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway

1 00 David Reutimann Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota  

2 24 Jeff Gordon DuPont/National Guard Chevrolet

3 17 Matt Kenseth DeWalt Ford

4 6 David Ragan UPS Ford

5 98 Paul Menard Quaker State/Menards Ford 

6 9 Kasey Kahne Budweiser Dodge

7 14 Tony Stewart Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet 

8 18 Kyle Busch Interstate Batteries Toyota 

9 48 Jimmie Johnson Kobalt Tools Chevrolet 

10 20 Joey Logano# Home Depot Toyota

11 47 Marcos Ambrose Clorox Toyota 

12 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Mobil 1 Dodge 

13 99 Carl Edwards Aflac Ford 

14 16 Greg Biffle 3M Ford

15 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet

16 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet

17 29 Kevin Harvick Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet 

18 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota 

19 33 Clint Bowyer Cheerios/Hambuger Helper Chevrolet 

20 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet 

21 39 Ryan Newman U.S. ARMY Chevrolet 

22 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Ground Toyota 

23 5 Mark Martin Cheez-It/CARQUEST Chevrolet

24 96 Bobby Labonte Ask.com Ford 

25 44 A J Allmendinger Super 8 Dodge 

26 34 John Andretti MyAutoLoan.com Chevrolet 

27 09 Mike Bliss Miccosukee Indian Resort Dodge

28 2 Kurt Busch Miller Lite Dodge 

29 7 Robby Gordon Jim Beam Toyota 

30 71 David Gilliland Capital Window Chevrolet  

31 1 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet 

32 12 David Stremme No. 12 Penske Dodge Dodge

33 78 Regan Smith Furniture Row Chevrolet 

34 55 Michael Waltrip NAPA Toyota 

35 07 Casey Mears Jack Daniel's Chevrolet 

36 26 Jamie McMurray Valvoline/Sears Ford 

37 21 Bill Elliott Motorcraft Ford 

38 43 Reed Sorenson McDonald's Dodge 

39 13 Max Papis# GEICO Toyota 

40 25 Brad Keselowski GoDaddy.com Chevrolet 

41 8 Aric Almirola Guitar Hero Metallica Chevrolet 

42 66 Dave Blaney Prism Motorsports Toyota 

43 87 Joe Nemechek   No Sponsor Toyota

44 82 Scott Speed# Red Bull Toyota 

45 41 Jeremy Mayfield All Sport Body Quencher Toyota  

46 64 Todd Bodine MAMBO Restaurants Toyota 

47 36 Scott Riggs   No Sponsor Toyota 

48 19 Elliott Sadler Best Buy Dodge