Busch, rain win at Fontana
FONTANA, Calif. – It doesn’t matter what kind of vehicle Kyle Busch is driving these days, he’s tough to beat.
Busch added a victory Saturday in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Auto Club Speedway to his runner-up finish in the truck race last week at Daytona. He also finished second in the Daytona Nationwide Series event and fourth in the Daytona 500.
But the youngster known as “Rowdy” isn’t satisfied.
“This is the start to, hopefully, a three-peat this weekend,” said Busch, who will also race today in the rain-delayed Nationwide race following the featured Auto Club 500 Sprint Car event on the 2-mile Auto Club Speedway.
Busch was dominant in the 100-lap truck race, leading 51 laps. He was out front going into a round of green-flag pit stops late in the event and retook the lead for good on lap 91 with a lead of almost 3.5 seconds over Daytona winner Todd Bodine.
Bodine raced Saturday without crew chief Mike Hillman Jr., serving a four-race suspension after inspectors found an unauthorized device used to lower his truck in prequalifying inspection at Daytona. Bodine was docked 25 points and car owner Stephen Germain lost 25 points for the infraction.
None of that slowed down Bodine, though. The former series champion led 25 laps, but he couldn’t catch Busch’s Toyota Tundra at the end. Johnny Benson was third.
Rain hits Nationwide race
Steady rain Saturday night forced the postponement of the NASCAR Nationwide Series race until today, when it will be run following the Sprint Cup race.
Officials waited more than two hours, making several attempts to dry the oval, before a worsening forecast forced them to call it.
The National Weather Service was calling for heavy rain and high wind during the night, with the rain expected to taper off during the day today. The race is scheduled for 1 p.m. PST with the Nationwide race to follow.
No. 21 back on track
After failing to qualify for the Daytona 500 for only the third time in 50 years, the Wood Brothers famed No. 21 will be on the for today’s Sprint Cup race.
“I came out of Daytona pretty down,” said Len Wood, co-owner of the pioneer stock car team. “But we found a couple of issues concerning qualifying and the 150-miler about why we didn’t make it, so that we feel better about coming here.
“Like (brother and team co-owner) Eddie (Wood) said, you can’t quit and you can’t panic, but you certainly would’ve been questioning yourself.”
Since the car finished outside the top 35 last year, it has to qualify on speed. Rain washed out qualifying Friday, but driver Bill Elliott got the team in on an ex-series champion’s provisional.
Busy guy
Ryan Newman had a whirlwind week of travel, interviews and media appearances from coast to coast in the wake of winning last Sunday’s Daytona 500.
The Penske Racing driver prefers fishing and chopping wood at a wilderness cabin to life in the fast lane – anywhere but the racetrack. But he took the chaotic week in stride after winning the biggest race of his life.
“The biggest things that I miss is just being home and seeing the dogs and spending time relaxing,” Newman said. “We’ve got a brand new big house with a big ol’ fireplace that we burn a lot of wood and listen to the wood cracking sitting back watching TV. That”s a lot of fun for me – at least when you can sit down and relax and do it.”