For the past five weeks, Joe Gibbs Racing has made a clean sweep of the Nationwide Series, with Joey Logano and Kyle Busch trading Victory Lane back and forth. Would anyone be able to dethrone the Gibbs boys, or would their dominance continue with the CampingWorld.com 300 at the Auto club Speedway?
On Saturday morning, Kyle Busch qualified on pole, his fourth of year, while Logano would start in the fifth position.
Busch and Harvick led the field to the green and the No. 18 easily cleared Harvick, who spun his tires and battled side by side with Keselowski for second before clearing him. Steve Wallace and Martin Truex, Jr. battled side by side for position, and after Truex made the pass Reed Sorenson took advantage, sending Wallace back to 11th.
By lap five the battle for eighth heated up between Allgaier, Ryan Menard, Sorenson and Ryan Newman as the No. 12 led a three wide battle. At the front of the pack Harvick began putting pressure on Busch for the race lead. Danica Patrick, who for the first time was returning to a track where she’d previously made a NASCAR start, ran 19th on lap eight after starting the race 14th.
Harvick took the lead on lap nine on the outside of Busch, and while the No. 18 tried to make a crossover move it was unsuccessful and Happy maintained the lead. On lap 16 Jason Leffler unexpectedly brought his No. 38 Great Clips Toyota to pit road, with the driver reporting he had no oil pressure and the engine had expired.
Meanwhile Michael Annett was able to get by Menard for 11th after the No. 15 started 22nd. After laps of side by side battling Sorenson was able to get by Truex, Jr. for the seventh spot, and on lap 24 Logano took third from Keselowski.
A three battle again involving Sorenson, this time with Carl Edwards and Truex, Jr. resulting in Truex taking the spot and immediately passing Allgaier for fifth. On lap 38 green flag pit stops began with Steve Wallace hitting pit road. Second place Busch pit on lap 40, followed by leader Harvick and Edwards and Menard among several others. Logano, Keselowski, Sorenson and several others pit the following lap, as did Patrick. Harvick cycled back to the lead when stops cycled on lap 42.
The first caution of the race came out on lap 47 for debris in turn two. Few cars came down pit road, most notably Menard, and Harvick and Busch were side by side as the field restarted at lap 50. This time Harvick got a solid start but Busch was able to hang with him on the inside and take the lead a lap later. Racing for position Sorenson and Annett make slight contact but are able to continue on.
Three wide with Menard, Bliss and Trevor Bayne as they raced for 13th . Meanwhile Allgaier and Truex, Jr. raced side by side for sixth with Allgaier taking the spot on the inside but Truex not letting him get too far away.
On lap 57 Harvick, who started out with a loose racecar, passed Busch again for the lead, while just behind them Logano for third. He would take second from his teammate two laps later. Busch reclaimed second on lap 64 and began a charge to regain the lead.
Logano took second back on lap 68 as the battle within the top three continued. Gaughan, Annett and Almirola were all battling for 11th. Annett got by Almirola for the spot on lap 71. Newman and Gaughan raced side by side on lap 80 as the second caution of the race came out for a spin by Steve Wallace.
When the clean up was done and field finally hit pit road it was Edwards who won the race off, followed by Busch, Keselowski, Truex and Allgaier rounding out the top five. Harvick dropped to sixth and Busch was found too fast entering and had to serve a pass thru penalty and restarted at the tail end of the field.
With 60 laps remaining the field went back to green with Edwards and rival Keselowski- both on probation- raced side by side for the lead with Keselowski taking the spot. Meanwhile Harvick battled Bayne for position and Busch was already making headway through the pack, running 10th on lap 93.
Harvick was able to pass Sorenson, who had just given up fifth to Logano, for position on lap 95 as he tried to rebound from his poor pit stop. Allgaier ran over a second behind his teammate Keselowski and Edwards began pressuring him for the spot. On lap 101 the third caution of the race came out, again for debris, and Patrick, who had been the second car a lap down the past two cautions, got back on the lead lap.
Keselowski and Allgaier led the field off pit road and to the green with 44 laps to go, with the No. 12 sliding in line behind his teammate. Busch, who had rebounded to fifth moved to second on the start, and Truex and Harvick battled a few spots behind him for fourth. Truex would also drop a spot to Edwards.
Busch reclaimed the lead with 36 laps to go, and the following lap Harvick moved into second with Allgaier challenging Keselowski for third. On the outside Harvick jumped back to the lead and, further back, Logano took sixth from Edwards.
On lap 117 Logano was holding off Truex to keep his fifth place position as the race up front calmed down. With 25 laps to go and fuel becoming an ever present issue Harvick maintained his lead and Edwards drove by Logano for fifth.
Caution for the fifth time on lap BLANK for Annett losing a tire and hitting the wall, collecting Gaughan. That eliminated any fuel concerns and brought the leaders to the pits. Edwards led the field off pit road, followed by Edwards, Allgaier, Truex, Jr. and Keselowski. It was another bad pit stop by the No. 33 of Harvick, who dropped six spots and would restart sixth.
After a lengthy caution for clean up the field was led to the green by Edwards and Busch with just 17 laps remaining. Busch was able to clear Allgaier and Edwards, who dropped to third. Just behind them Harvick had battled back up to fifth. Caution for the sixth time came out for a scary spin by Johnny Borneman in the No. 83 after he was sent spinning down pit road.
James Buescher ran into the back of the No. 7 of Danica Patrick, who was running in the top 15, hard into the wall, an incident that brought out the seventh caution of the race and collected Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Ricky Carmichael.
The race restarted with just five laps remaining and Busch jumped out ahead of the rest of the field, but Keselowski was on his bumper. Behind them Harvick and Allgaier traded fourth between them, making the race four ride as Truex and Edwards raced the pair with just three laps remaining.
The side by side battles behind him were enough to let Busch get away from the field and win his 12th race of the 2010 season, and a sixth straight for Joe Gibbs Racing.
“Pit road probably won this race,” he said in Victory Lane. “I can’t thank these crew guys enough. To come out there and get number 12 is awesome.”
Speaking of pit road, Harvick was none too happy with the performance of his today, nor has he been most of the season, and his disappointment seemed to come to a head at the Auto Club Speedway.
"If they can't stand the pressure, they're going to have to find something else to do." Harvick said of his crew after the race. He indicated earlier in the race on the team’s radio that changes would be made to the No. 33 Jimmy John’s pit crew during the coming week.
Thanks to SPEEDTV.com and Landmark Newspaper’s Dustin Long for the quotes used in this piece. Photo credit to Getty Images.
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