It wasn't pretty, but Matt Kenseth was just happy to be in a NASCAR Nationwide Series Victory Circle after nearly a year.
Kenseth passed Jeff Burton for the lead on Lap 186 of yesterday's Nicorette 300, a race extended three laps beyond its scheduled 195 laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway by a late caution flag.
Kenseth, who acknowledged he didn't have the fastest car, managed to hold off Kevin Harvick by about three car-lengths in a green-white-checker shootout, winning for the first time since April 14, 2007, at Texas – a stretch of 18 races.
“About time, huh?” Kenseth said, smiling. “You certainly think about getting beat at the end. That happened to us a few times last year.”
Kyle Busch looked like a runaway winner as he led 153 of the first 170 laps before blowing a tire and hitting the wall for the second straight week. That left the battle to Kenseth, Burton and Kevin Harvick.
After Kenseth took the lead, Burton faded and Harvick gave chase to the leader, looking several times like he could catch him. But a bad pit stop and ill-timed caution flags at the end allowed Kenseth to maintain control on the way to his 24th Nationwide victory.
“Kevin was really fast,” Kenseth said. “On short runs, I could beat him. After a few laps, he could beat me pretty good.”
When Busch hit the wall on Lap 170, it brought out the sixth of eight caution flags in the race and sent the leaders to pit road. Harvick went into the pits in front, but came out sixth.
“I don't think anything happened,” the disappointed former series champion said. “It was just slow. I'm really disappointed. We gave it away on pit road there at the end. When you get handed these situations, you've got to capitalize on them.”
He still thought he could catch Kenseth, but two more caution flags kept cutting off his pursuit.
Busch, who finished second in the first two Nationwide events this year, hit the wall hard after his right front tire exploded while he was leading by more than two seconds.
“It wasn't as gentle as last week,” was all he told his team on the radio as he drove slowly to the pits. He finished a lap off the pace in 24th.
“Nobody was going to beat him on speed,” Kenseth said, referring to Busch. “I know (his crash) kind of opened the door for everybody.”
Carl Edwards, the reigning Nationwide champion and winner of the last two Cup events heading into today's Kobalt Tools 500 on the Atlanta track, finished fourth, followed by Bobby Labonte, Brad Keselowski and Mike Bliss.
Stewart smokin' mad
Tony Stewart took a hard lick last Sunday at Las Vegas when his right front tire blew out, and he was still seething after arriving at Atlanta for today's Sprint Cup race.
“There isn't anybody, I don't think, who is happy with the tires we have got,” Stewart said. “After 10 years in the Cup Series, you learn to be highly disappointed with everything that Goodyear does.”
Stewart pointed out that the tires at Las Vegas were inconsistent, with some going a full fuel run without a problem and others wearing quickly.
Honda rules at Daytona
Josh Hayes had flawless pit stops aboard his No. 1 Erion Honda on the way to a dominating victory in the 67th Daytona 200 AMA Formula Xtreme Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
“My race just couldn't have gone better,” said Hayes, who was 32.762 seconds ahead of Kawasaki's Chaz Davies at the end of the 69-lap event.
In the opening round of the AMA Superbike championship, six-time champion Mat Mladin led all 15 laps on his way to a 3.368-second victory over his Suzuki teammate Ben Spies.
