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Kyle Busch was trailing Carl Edwards in points until Edwards' car began to sputter at Phoenix.Busch looks to clinch at place season turned: PIR
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Another victory this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway would give Kyle Busch three in the past five races is the desert, and tie him with Greg Biffle for most at the track in the Nationwide Series.
Another victory this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway would give Kyle Busch nine on the season, putting him one away from matching the record-tying 10 he won last year.
But the biggest number, in the bigger picture, for Kyle Busch this weekend is 52. That's how many points he has at his disposal to clinch the series championship.
Busch leads Carl Edwards by 247 points. He can celebrate a week early if by race's end his lead is 195 points or more. Busch and Edwards have competed in the same race at Phoenix seven times.
4Races at Phoenix in which Carl Edwards out-pointed Kyle Busch.
1Races at Phoenix in which Carl Edwards out-pointed Kyle Busch by more than 52 points.
Despite starting from the pole and leading 33 laps, Busch crashed out after 101 of 200 laps and finished 37th in the spring of 2007 as Edwards finished fifth. That was a 98-point swing.
Edwards posted his worst finish at Phoenix earlier this year, and it marked a turning point in the season. He started on the pole and led 79 laps. But a broken valve spring doomed him to 33rd, the first time in nine starts he failed to post a top-10.
Busch, meanwhile, rallied from two laps down to finish 10th and in so doing wrested the top spot in points away from Edwards. Busch has led the standings ever since, some 27 races in a row.
2Wins for both drivers. Each has one victory from the pole. Busch is the only driver to win back-to-back races at Phoenix: fall of 2007 and spring of '08.
6Top-fives for Carl Edwards, tied for second-most in track history.
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6Races out of the past seven that have been extended for a green-white-checkered finish and seven of the 15 overall.
7.0Average finish in eight races for Clint Bowyer, the best of any driver with four or more starts.
8Top-10s in 10 starts for Matt Kenseth, including a win from the pole in the fall of 2006. Kenseth, who will be driving the car (No. 16 Ford) Greg Biffle drove to victory at PIR in April, hasn't made a series start at Phoenix since finishing second in both races in '07.
12Races won from the first two rows including the past six in a row.
14Starts for Kevin Harvick, who leads all drivers with 10 top-fives and 11 top-10s. He has posted a top-five finish in the past four races and a top-10 in the past nine. His lone victory came in the spring of 2006.
21.5Positive differential between average starting (31.0) and finishing (9.5) positions in two starts for Justin Allgaier. In the April race, he started 42nd and finished eighth.
THE WOW FACTOR
3Consecutive top-10s for Mike Bliss, after having never finished better than 12th in five previous starts. All three top-10s came in the No. 1 Chevrolet. Bliss is entered this week in the No. 11 Toyota, a car he has taken to a top-10 finish in each of four races he has driven it, with two runner-up finishes and three top-fives overall.
THE SUPER LOOPER
306Laps Led at Phoenix for both Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch, most since the inception of Loop Data. Busch has two fewer races, however, for a track-best percentage of Laps Led of 21.6. Edwards has the most Fastest Laps with 203.
Driver Rating (since 2005, nine races)
| Pos. | Driver* | Starts | Rating | Pct. Laps / Top 15 | Avg. Run Pos. | Avg. Fin. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Matt Kenseth | 5 | 124.2 | 99.4 | 4.0 | 3.0 |
| 2. | Carl Edwards | 9 | 118.1 | 87.1 | 7.2 | 7.2 |
| 3. | Kevin Harvick | 9 | 115.6 | 93.8 | 5.9 | 4.1 |
| 4. | Kyle Busch | 7 | 113.7 | 80.0 | 9.3 | 10.9 |
| 5. | Clint Bowyer | 8 | 110.7 | 86.8 | 7.9 | 7.0 |
| 6. | Denny Hamlin | 8 | 103.5 | 83.7 | 9.8 | 12.4 |
| 7. | Reed Sorenson | 4 | 97.3 | 86.4 | 10.7 | 12.3 |
| 8. | Brendan Gaughan | 1 | 92.8 | 98.5 | 11.2 | 7.0 |
| 9. | Jason Leffler | 8 | 90.4 | 63.0 | 13.2 | 13.8 |
| 10. | David Reutimann | 4 | 87.7 | 77.4 | 14.8 | 16.0 |
• Loop Data Statistics: Season-to-Date Box Score | * Entered in this race only
BLAST FROM THE PAST
1Caution laps in each of the first two races at Phoenix, in 1999 and 2000. In contrast, the past three races have had nine cautions each, and before that the previous three had 11 each.
Related
• Biffle wins as Edwards loses points lead to Busch with engine problem
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Nationwide Series
Standings
| Pos. | +/- | Driver | Points | Behind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | -- | Kyle Busch | 5,349 | Leader |
| 2. | -- | Carl Edwards | 5,102 | -247 |
| 3. | -- | Brad Keselowski | 5,082 | -267 |
| 4. | -- | Jason Leffler | 4,349 | -1,000 |
| 5. | -- | Justin Allgaier | 3,831 | -1,518 |
| 6. | -- | Mike Bliss | 3,818 | -1,531 |
| 7. | -- | Steve Wallace | 3,726 | -1,623 |
| 8. | -- | Jason Keller | 3,701 | -1,648 |
| 9. | -- | Brendan Gaughan | 3,678 | -1,671 |
| 10. | -- | Michael Annett | 3,395 | -1,954 |
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