Busch posts ninth N'wide win to reach 20 overall

CONCORD, N.C. -- Kyle Busch's staggering numbers just got better.

With a dominating performance in Friday night's rain-interrupted Dollar General 300 -- the type of run that's become commonplace -- Busch drove his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to victory by .662 seconds over Jeff Burton at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Dollar General 300

Official Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
2.	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet
3.	Brian Vickers	Toyota
4.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
5.	Carl Edwards	Ford
6.	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet
7.	Kelly Bires	Ford
8.	Brad Keselowski	Chevrolet
9.	Jamie McMurray	Ford
10.	Mike Wallace	Toyota

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Busch, who led 137 of 200 laps, pulled away after a restart with three laps left (watch video). The victory was his ninth in the Nationwide Series this year, the 20th of his career, and his 20th in NASCAR's top three series combined this year.

Brian Vickers ran third in a backup car after crashing during qualifying earlier in the day. Series points leader Clint Bowyer was fourth, followed by Carl Edwards. The margin between Bowyer and second-place finisher Edwards remained at 196 points because Edwards led a lap -- worth a five-point bonus -- and Bowyer didn't.

Kevin Harvick, Kelly Bires, Brad Keselowski, pole-sitter Jamie McMurray and Mike Wallace completed the top 10.

"We've had a lot of phenomenal racecars this year," said Busch, who started 16th and quickly worked his way to the front. "It's just been one of those phenomenal seasons for us on the Nationwide side. You've just got to enjoy it while you can."

For Burton, Friday's race was his final start in the series this year, and he leaves without a victory.

"To their credit, they've been doing a great job, and Kyle's been driving the hell out of it," Burton said of the Gibbs effort this year.

Several drivers took issue with Busch's approach to late-race restarts, where he appeared to slow and stacked up the field behind him. It was a wreck on a restart on Lap 194 that caused the 13th and final caution (watch video) -- one short of the track record -- and set up the three-lap sprint to the finish.

The race, which included 14 Sprint Cup drivers and six in the Chase, never got into a flow thanks to rain and wrecks. There were two rain delays totaling more than an hour, and the 13 cautions caused 58 laps to be run under caution.

But a finish well after midnight didn't affect Busch, who completed a Nationwide sweep at Lowe's, and softened some of his disappointment from his recent weeks in the Sprint Cup.

Busch hasn't finished better than 15th since the season-ending Chase began, dropping him to 11th in the standings behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

But in a field that included several Cup veterans and inexperienced drivers, nobody could challenge Busch.

Johnson, the Sprint Cup points leader with five victories here in NASCAR's top series, remained winless in Nationwide races at the track. Fighting a loose car, Johnson hit the wall with 83 laps left, ending his chances.

Notes: Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick scuffled in the garage on Thursday, but they didn't take their issues onto the track. Early in Friday night's race, they contested the fourth position side-by-side for four laps -- without incident. ... Justin Allgaier was impressive in his series debut, before Steve Wallace's spinning Chevrolet clipped Allgaier's No. 12 Penske Dodge on Lap 125 (watch video). Hard contact with the frontstretch wall ended Allgaier's race and dropped him to 34th at the finish. ... Joey Logano, the 18-year-old prodigy making his Lowe's debut, got loose and hit the wall on the 106th lap. He returned to the track and got back on the lead lap, finishing 14th.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.