Kyle Busch’s return to the NASCAR Nationwide series was a success as he became the only repeat winner at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the all-time lap-leader (8117) in NASCAR’s junior series.
Danica Patrick’s return to NASCAR ended up in 30th place after an early race incident.
Notching a series-leading sixth win of the year in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Busch held off a late-race charge of the Penske Racing Dodge of Brad Keselowski, by .644 seconds and Roush Fenway Ford of Carl Edwards. It was Busch’s 36th win in the series.
Busch, who previously announced that he would be racing only part-time in the Nationwide Series and was away from his car for three weeks, said “it was a good car. I think Joey (Logano – his teammate who finished fourth) was really good. I felt our car was good on the long runs. Can’t wait to keep racing these things.” Explaining the key to his victory he explained “once we had the restart there I wasn’t sure that Joey was going to get me but, unfortunately Joey spun his tires on that restart.”
Brad Keselowski who now leads Edwards in the Nationwide points standings by 247 points moved past Logano on the final restart with 18 laps to go.
Logano blamed himself. It was “driver error. I probably should have finished second, but I spun my tires and that was my fault. Because Kyle beat me on the restart I screwed up and that’s what I get I finished fourth for that. I feel bad for the boys.”
Brad Keselowski said “it was all came down that final restart. The 20 (Logano) and 18 (Busch) were going really hard and I looked like Joey spun his tires a little bit and jumbled everything up.”
IndyCar’s Danica Patrick’s return to NASCAR was difficult to be kind. She qualified 25th in the JR Motorsports Chevrolet and finished 30th after being involved in an early caution with veteran Morgan Shepherd.
The two made contact in turn one and it’s debatable if there was fault. But Patrick said “I got dumped in the first corner. It's hard to recover from that. I guess that's racing."
Shepherd said "we just got together when we went down in the corner. She squeezed me a little bit and we got together and that’s all there was to it.”
She finished five laps behind the leaders in her first NASCAR race since Las Vegas on February 27th. “There is a lot I need to learn. It's better to have these things happen now then later on when they matter more,” she added possibly referring to a full-time switch to stock cars.
Patrick’s next NASCAR race will be on July 9th at Chicagoland Speedway.
As for beating Mark Martin’s lap leading record Busch, who is now also tied for second with Kevin Harvick with 36 wins (to Martin’s 48 wins) Busch said “there’s one more record I’m after and that’s the win record; to try to beat him and see many I can set.”
Danica Patrick’s return to NASCAR ended up in 30th place after an early race incident.
Notching a series-leading sixth win of the year in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Busch held off a late-race charge of the Penske Racing Dodge of Brad Keselowski, by .644 seconds and Roush Fenway Ford of Carl Edwards. It was Busch’s 36th win in the series.
Busch, who previously announced that he would be racing only part-time in the Nationwide Series and was away from his car for three weeks, said “it was a good car. I think Joey (Logano – his teammate who finished fourth) was really good. I felt our car was good on the long runs. Can’t wait to keep racing these things.” Explaining the key to his victory he explained “once we had the restart there I wasn’t sure that Joey was going to get me but, unfortunately Joey spun his tires on that restart.”
Brad Keselowski who now leads Edwards in the Nationwide points standings by 247 points moved past Logano on the final restart with 18 laps to go.
Logano blamed himself. It was “driver error. I probably should have finished second, but I spun my tires and that was my fault. Because Kyle beat me on the restart I screwed up and that’s what I get I finished fourth for that. I feel bad for the boys.”
Brad Keselowski said “it was all came down that final restart. The 20 (Logano) and 18 (Busch) were going really hard and I looked like Joey spun his tires a little bit and jumbled everything up.”
IndyCar’s Danica Patrick’s return to NASCAR was difficult to be kind. She qualified 25th in the JR Motorsports Chevrolet and finished 30th after being involved in an early caution with veteran Morgan Shepherd.
The two made contact in turn one and it’s debatable if there was fault. But Patrick said “I got dumped in the first corner. It's hard to recover from that. I guess that's racing."
Shepherd said "we just got together when we went down in the corner. She squeezed me a little bit and we got together and that’s all there was to it.”
She finished five laps behind the leaders in her first NASCAR race since Las Vegas on February 27th. “There is a lot I need to learn. It's better to have these things happen now then later on when they matter more,” she added possibly referring to a full-time switch to stock cars.
Patrick’s next NASCAR race will be on July 9th at Chicagoland Speedway.
As for beating Mark Martin’s lap leading record Busch, who is now also tied for second with Kevin Harvick with 36 wins (to Martin’s 48 wins) Busch said “there’s one more record I’m after and that’s the win record; to try to beat him and see many I can set.”