Kyle Busch was shuffled back in the top ten a few times today, but found his way to the front again to cross the finish line first in the Servicemaster 200 at Phoenix International Raceway Saturday afternoon. This is his 12th win of the 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series season.
Austin Dillon and Sam Hornish, Jr. are vying for the championship and the battle will go to Homestead-Miami Speedway. Hornish, Jr. was not happy with the car’s setup all weekend long, but was able to muscle out a fifth place finish. Austin Dillon was in the top ten all afternoon and finished third. Justin Allgaier passed Dillon on the last lap to take the second place finish. Dillon will enter the last race of the season with an eight point advantage over Hornish in the championship standings.
The owner’s points got a little more competitive between the No. 54 of Joe Gibbs Racing and the No. 22 of Penske Racing. Brad Keselowski, who drove Penske’s No. 22 in today’s race, was in running in the top five on lap 142 when Brian got loose in a restart going into a corner and clipped the left rear of Keselowski’s car. This caused Keselowski to spin and hit the outside wall. The owner’s points lead going into today’s race was 26 and it was trimmed to four after Keselowski finished 19th and the Kyle Busch (driving the 54) won the race.
Regan Smith finished fourth, followed by Sam Hornish, Jr., Matt Kenseth, Trevor Bayne, Elliott Sadler, Kevin Harvick and Ryan Blaney. Blaney was solid for Penske Racing all race long driving the No. 48 AutoZone Ford Mustang as the third entry for the team in the race.
Busch led 169 of the 200 laps today, Allgaier led 17 laps and Keselowski had eight laps as the leader.
Seven cautions were called during the race. The first came when Eric McClure hit the wall on lap one. The race went green for 100 consecutive laps and then there were four cautions in a row on restart laps.
The season finale will be at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 4:30 p.m. ET. Will it be Dillon or Hornish, Jr. lifting the Nationwide championship trophy?
