Busch, Truex Jr. square off during, after race

Tight racing leads to confrontation between point leaders at Lowe's

CONCORD, N.C. -- Sure, Mike Bliss pulled off a stellar three-wide move to win the The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie 300 on Friday night, but all eyes were focused on the confrontation between Busch Series point leaders Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch.

Martin Truex Jr. finished fifth Friday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Credit: Autostock

Busch, charging hard from 26th after an altercation with Bliss and Truex in the pits on Lap 136 put him behind, tapped the right rear of Truex's car as the two came down the frontstretch with five laps to go. They battled the rest of the way and Truex tailgated Busch to pit lane after the event.

Busch jumped out and made a visit to Truex's door, but cooler heads prevailed and no scuffle ensued.

"I don't have a clue what happened," Truex said following the race. "I was under the 21 car and I thought Kyle Busch ran into my right rear. I didn't try to wreck him before that or anything like that.

SpongeBob 300 Victory Lane Mike Bliss celebrates the first win of his Busch Series career Final laps Bliss passes Johnson and Kenseth to take the win at LMS Title hunt Truex Jr. discusses the altercations he had with Kyle Busch at LMS Parked car R.Gordon parks his car to avoid being penalized by NASCAR Tough break Kyle Busch suffers a setback after a pit road altercation Hard clip Kasey Kahne clips the wall and goes to the garage Early Caution Nemechek's bid for two straight wins ends early •   Results •   Standings

"Apparently, he thought I tried to put him into the wall. There is no need to race somebody like he did me. If I did squeeze him at some point, it was by accident. There was no need for him to come back and try to wreck me.

"The better man is going to win this championship and right now we're in pretty good shape," Truex said. "It was just a tough race because of the track position we lost when we pitted that last time."

Truex said there was no message intended when he followed Busch off of pit road.

Truex seemed to fall off late in the race, settling into the top 10 with 60 to go. Busch caught Truex with six laps to go and made the disputed pass one lap later.

Truex wound up fifth and Busch finished one spot higher, gaining five points on the championship leader. Truex now leads by 144 points with five races left in the Busch Series season.

Busch spent much of the last 64 laps scrambling to make up for a collision on pit lane with Bliss that required an extra trip down pit road and left him 26th on the restart. Apparently, Busch didn't see the stop paddle at the end of pit road after a gas-only stop and pranged the right front fender on his Patrick Starfish Chevrolet.

He had battled back to the brink of the top 10 on Lap 187 when he tapped Dave Blaney coming off Turn 4, sending Blaney into the wall at the head of the frontstretch.

"I have to apologize to Dave," Busch said. "He had an awesome car tonight and could have finished in the top five. I guess I kind of screwed up his night by getting into the back of him."

A pit road miscue may have cost Kyle Busch a victory Friday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Credit: Autostock

Busch had little comment on the action with Truex.

"I'm not sure what the problem was there between us and the 8 car," he said.

Greg Biffle, who was third in the points entering the race, had to start 43rd on Friday and he raced all the way to fourth at the finish.

Biffle is still third, 331 points behind Busch in what is realistically a two-man title race.

"We were too tight there and we had to start at the back," Biffle said. "That for sure was not where we wanted to be or needed to be. We wanted to be better and it should have been a better night for us."