Kyle Busch spent 120 of the 150 laps in the top 10. Credit: Autostock

Late slip keeps Busch from gaining on Truex

FONTANA, Calif. -- The scratched decals on the right side of Kyle Busch's No. 5 Chevrolet pretty much explained it all.

"It was a good day, but it just didn't quite wind up that way," Busch said.

With less than 10 laps to go in Saturday's Target House 300 and Busch Series points leader Martin Truex Jr. in his sights, Busch ran out of real estate on the wide two-mile California Speedway oval and was squeezed into the wall.

Busch qualified 18th for Sunday's Nextel Cup event. Credit: Autostock

"You can get three or four wide here, but you all have to filter into one groove on the way off the corner," Busch said. "I got the worst of it and caved in the fender."

Instead of a possible top-five finish, Busch wound up having to make an extra pit stop to pull out the damage, which left him 14th on the final restart. He salvaged some of what he lost by finishing ninth, just three spots behind Truex.

So instead of making any headway in the championship hunt, Busch went from 78 points behind to unofficially 95 back, heading into Richmond.

But don't expect this setback to linger longer than it takes to fight the traffic on Interstate 10 back to Ontario International Airport.

"You keep digging," Busch said. "Every week, you go after the same thing, which is going after your top-fives and top-10s.

"This week, we missed out on a chance to get a top-five."

TARGET HOUSE 300 Victory Lane Greg Biffle celebrates his season sweep at California Speedway Top Finishers Mears, McMurray, Truex Jr. on their Target House 300 finishes Final Laps Late cautions set up a duel to the checkers between Biffle and Mears End of the Road Sterling Marlin drops an engine at the midway point of the race •   Results •   Standings

Busch started fourth, but slipped out of the top 10 while fighting the handling of his car.

"I was loose during the first part of the race," he said. "We struggled to hold the bottom in (Turns) 3 and 4, just like everybody. Once we got better there, then we had to work on 1 and 2 again."

After a yellow on lap 76, the race then stayed caution-free for almost 70 laps, forcing teams to make pit stops under green.

"I would have actually liked to have come in quicker if we knew the race was going to go green to the end," Busch said. "I felt like we would have been better on fresher tires. But we always get pretty good fuel mileage here."

That final stop moved Busch back into a battle for position behind Greg Biffle and Casey Mears -- and resulted in him scraping the wall.

"Like I keep saying, the guys never give up," he said. "They're definitely championship caliber and they're trying to do it with a rookie driver. There's going to be some mistakes made out on the track and there will probably be more mistakes made down the line."