Despite a black flag, a troublesome transmission, and a run-in with teammate, Joey Logano in the pits, Kyle Busch overcame it all to win the NASCAR Nationwide race at Phoenix International Raceway.
It was his third win at the one-mile oval and 32nd in the series. “Nothing to it,” he radioed his crew after the checkered flag was waved. On a restart, on lap 137, taking the high line with Brad Keselowski in the low line, Busch didn’t take off in the space allotted causing a nine-car chain reaction some rows behind him. That caused a ten-minute red flag stoppage. "When you get to the first line, you have to maintain your speed. Once you get to the second line, it's free game,'' Keselowski said. "I maintained my speed and he did not. When I got to the second line, I just went. That's the rule, and the interpretation I have of it.'' On the following restart Busch jumped ahead of Keselowski who had been awarded first place due to the Busch’s, slow, earlier restart. Because he jumped the restart NASCAR officials black flagged Busch and required a drive-through penalty dropping him to 19th. He took the lead, for good, with eight laps to go. Keselowski, who ended up second (behind Kevin Harvick), but, took the points lead said: “There was action everywhere.” He grinned and added “I kind of had him upset in the car, making mistakes on the restarts.” Busch was at a loss for words to describe his comeback, “I don’t know,” he said then apologized to Logano and his crew for the pit lane contact. On the other hand he was unapologetic to series officials as he added: “All I know is I paid NASCAR back by winning.”
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