After wild day, Busch gains a bit in points race

JOLIET, Ill. -- The race for the NASCAR Busch Series championship looked to be going Martin Truex Jr.'s way. Not much later, it looked to be going Kyle Busch's way.

Then it looked like it was going Truex's way again. Finally, it went Busch's way. Sort of.

After a crazy Tropicana Twister 300 at Chicagoland Speedway, the points difference between leader Truex and second-place Busch was 52, a 16-point gain by Busch.

	Martin Truex Jr. finished 14th on Saturday at Chicagoland. Credit: Autostock

But at various points of the race, the points swing one way or another looked to be a lot more.

First, Busch had a cut tire and had to pit on Lap 40, and was caught a lap down when a caution came out 14 laps later.

But that caution was for a crash between David Stremme and ... Truex. That not only got Busch back on the lead lap, but the damage to Truex's car caused its handling to suffer.

Busch marched back through the field, even getting the lead again. But a suspected valve spring broke in the engine in Busch's car, and he slowly faded back through the field.

Finally, as the checkered flag waved, Busch ended up 12th, with Truex 14th.

"He had a bummer day all day," Busch said. "It's a shame to see your rival competitor suck, but on the other hand, it's also good to see him suck."

Busch flashed a smile on his sweat-soaked head, indicative of the rising heat in suburban Chicago. Truex, meanwhile, had a frown on his face, but not because he lost ground to Busch.

Truex was upset that he was involved in the crash with Stremme, taking responsibility for the accident.

"Just my mistake," Truex said. "I was real loose getting into the corner. Our car was pretty fast after that pit stop, and I was trying to pass some guys. Somebody runs you at your quarterpanel down the straightaway, they drag you way down.

Tropicana Twister 300 Justin Labonte celebrates his first NBS victory Play video Mike Wallace is upset after falling one lap short Play video Labonte and Wallace fight for the win in the closing laps Play video Truex Jr. gets loose and makes contact with Stremme Play video Parker and Hamilton Jr. have trouble early Play video  •  Unofficial Results  •  Unofficial Standings

"Them guys got outside me, and I got real loose getting in the corner. I got loose and chased it up into him.

"I hate that it happened to him. He's fun to race with, and he does a great job. He had a really good car. Stuff seems to happen to him a lot, and I'm real sorry for him. Stupid mistake on my part. We could've had a good finish out of it."

And he could have gained a lot of ground on Busch, especially after Busch had trouble early in the race.

"I saw something that I ran over, but I thought it was a piece of rubber from another car," Busch said. "Obviously, it was something different because about 10 laps later, it started getting tighter and tighter. I knew we were losing the right-front, and as soon as Kenseth got by, it wasn't worth wrecking a car."

Truex noticed Busch's problem but did his best to focus on the task at hand.

"You try not to worry about what everybody else is doing," Truex said. "I was up in the top 10, and I didn't see him up there, so it kind of entered my mind. But you don't really think about it too much."

If he was thinking about getting a big advantage on Busch, those thoughts went away on Lap 54 when Truex's car slid into Stremme's. A piece of Truex's bumper came off, bringing out a caution on Lap 56.

When the race restarted, Busch was 25th, Truex 28th. Busch didn't stay there long, roaring back to the front of the field, while Truex struggled with an ill-handling car.

Then Busch's car had a valve spring break, and he drifted back to where Truex was running. Suddenly, Busch's mindset changed.

"There toward the end of the race when we're trying to come back from being down all day, we had to make sure that the car stayed together for the rest of the race," Busch said. "I kind of bogged her down on that last restart to make sure she would last."

The engine lasted, barely. And Busch even started to get greedy again.

"I was just hoping to get a couple more cars behind us between us and Martin," Busch said. "It wasn't able to happen that way. But we'll go on to next week and make sure we have everything together then."