Truex retained the Busch Series points lead even after this damage suffered on Lap 4. Credit: Autostock

Point leaders suffer big trouble at Kansas

Truex Jr. wrecks early, but holds serve after Kyle Busch's accident

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Martin Truex Jr. has held the Busch Series points lead for the past 14 races without giving Kyle Busch a chance to catch him.

At Kansas, Truex finally gave Busch a chance to catch him by scoring his worst finish of the year. The problem is that Busch also scored his worst finish of the year.

Mr. Goodcents 300 Victory Lane Nemechek on his Busch victory at Kansas Speedway Top finishers Biffle and Stremme focus on their Top 3 finishes at Kansas Final laps Joe Nemechek hangs on to win the Mr. Goodcents 300 Down and out Kyle Busch spins and collects several cars on Lap 81 Early caution Truex Jr. gets tangled on Lap 4 and suffers heavy damage •   Results •   Standings

Truex entered the Mr. Goodcents 300 with a 152-point lead. Even though he wrecked on Lap 4, he lost a mere three points to Busch, who finished 29th to beat Truex by a single spot.

Busch had problems before the race even started. He had qualified fourth, but he developed a cut tire just before the green flag, and he had to pit and take four tires before the race.

Under NASCAR's rules, Busch had to start in the rear.

Busch was later caught up in an accident on Lap 82 when Tim Fedewa spun in front of him, but Busch refuses to blame the accident on the fact that he was mired in heavy traffic. He was just glad they found the cut tire before the race.

"It could have been a lot worse, getting caught up into something early," Busch said. "We were able to race along."

Truex never got that chance. He allowed Robby Gordon to pass him in Turn 2, but Ron Hornaday got into the back of Truex, sending him hard into the fence.

Truex wrecked early in the 2004 season opener at Daytona, and crew chief Kevin Manion swore that if it ever happened again, his team would be prepared to deal with it.

Were they ever.

Chance 2 Motorsports had been lugging around a new rear-end assembly and front end all season along, and at Kansas, it paid off.

After Truex wrecked, two dozen Chance 2 and DEI employees got to work repairing both ends of the car. DEI Technical Director Steve Hmiel personally replaced most of the rear end.

"We have talked about this was a company," Manion said. "There was red shirts, blue shirts and black shirts (working)."

Busch suffered damage on Lap 82. As a result, he finished 29th. Credit: Autostock

"Everyone in the whole company was there and that is really strong. We had everything ready to go. We were running 40th and we finished 30th. Great day."

Truex's 30th-place finish was the first time he had finished 30th or worse all year.

"Everybody has them once in awhile," Truex said. "We were fortunate Kyle had bad luck too.

"We just got lucky today. I swear we had a car that could have won the race. It was so good."

Busch was frustrated that he couldn't close the gap with Truex, who has led the points twice this year for a total of 16 weeks. Busch led the points for three weeks earlier in the season, but he hasn't led the points since Nashville, when he ran out of gas after leading the most laps.

"We always seem to equal out," Busch said. "We can't ever seem to get ahead of him."