Kyle Busch started on the pole. He took the green and immediately proved his dominance. He led the first lap and was able to lead all the laps until the first caution of the race on lap 24. Trevor Bayne thought he was clear of the lapped car of Bryan Silas in turn 1. He was not and the two made contact and Silas slammed into the wall. The two received a good bit of damage. Kyle Fowler received the lucky dog. The race went back green and it was a short time before the second caution of the race on lap 34. Harrison Rhodes made contact with the outside wall in turn 4 and Eric McClure made contact with him and went for a spin down the track. The two drove away with minimal damage. Hal Martin, who was making his first Darlington Nationwide start, received the lucky dog. The race went back green and one of the contenders in the race had a bit of trouble.
Coming into turn 2 on lap 51, Elliott Sadler got loose. Sadler went for a spin down the track, but he was able to make a nice save and keep it out of the wall. He continued on and this resulted in the third caution of the race on lap 51. Eric McClure, who was unable to race at Darlington last year due to his injury at Talladega, received the lucky dog. The most important event from this caution was what happened to Kyle Busch during his pit stop.
Kyle Busch came into the pits as the leader. His crew did a good job on the right side, but as his jackman came around the car, he slipped and fell. He was able to get up and finish the stop, but Busch fell from first to eleventh. Considering how good he had been in the lead, it didn't seem like a big deal, but he had not raced in traffic at all during the race. The race went back green and Busch began making moves to the front, but one pretty notable driver experienced his first incident with the walls of Darlington.
On lap 72, Travis Pastrana went up the track in turn 4 and made a little contact with the wall, resulting in his Darlington Stripe. He tried to stay out as long as possible, but he eventually had to make his move onto pit road on lap 77 to fix the sheetmetal damage that had occurred. But no caution waved and the race continued on. After fighting his way from the middle of the pack, Kyle Busch was finally able to make the move past Matt Kenseth for the lead on lap 82. It was a short time before Busch and Kenseth's teammate had trouble on lap 91.
Brian Vickers, who was running third at the time, made an unscheduled pit stop on lap 91. Vickers had been experiencing a horrible vibration that he figured was caused by a loose lugnut. He pulled into his stall and the team changed tires. The vibration had not been caused by a loose lugnut, but the team was able to fix it and he was able to continue. It was a short time after this when the first round of green flag stops of the race began on lap 108. Kyle Busch, who was the leader before the stops, was able to cycle back around to the lead after they were over. It was a short time after this before the fourth and final caution of the race on lap 120. Kyle Fowler went into turn 1and the car made a hard right turn into the outside wall. He hit the wall hard and slid down the track to the inside wall and stopped with significant damage. He was unable to continue in the race. Brian Scott received the lucky dog. Because of this, Brian Vickers was able to gain his positions back and returned to the front. Also, Joey Logano and Austin Dillon stayed out while the rest of the leaders pitted. Now, a mad dash was set up for the finish.
The race went back green and Joey Logano was able to streak away a little from Kyle Busch. With about twenty laps to go, Busch was able to finally make his move past Logano and he never looked back. He cruised to his fifth win of the season in only eight races attempted. It was also his fifty sixth career win in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. It was a quite a race for Busch and if he had not had the incident on his lap 51 pit stop, he could have led even more laps and showed even more dominance.
After taking the race off last week at Talladega, Kyle Busch showed that he had not lost a beat in the Nationwide Series. Also, Joe Gibbs Racing continued their dominance at Darlington. All four of his cars finished in the top 5 and two of his drivers, Brian Vickers and Elliott Sadler, even had troubles during the night, but were able to make it back through the field. All in all, it was complete domination from the Gibbs team. The NASCAR Nationwide Series takes a week off and then heads to the Charlotte Motor Speedway for the History 300 on May 25. Make sure to tune into that race because it should be a good one.
(More Stats Down Below!)
Cautions:
1st Caution: Lap 24- Trevor Bayne made contact with Bryan Silas in turn 1 and the two went up into the wall.
2nd Caution: Lap 34- Harrison Rhodes made contact with the wall in turn 4 and Eric McClure ran into him and went for a spin.
3rd Caution: Lap 51- Elliott Sadler went for a spin in turn 2, but was able to keep it out of the wall.
4th Caution: Lap 120- Kyle Fowler made hard contact with the outside wall in turn 1 and slid down the racetrack.
Lucky Dogs:
1 Caution: Kyle Fowler
2 Caution: Hal Martin
3 Caution: Eric McClure
4 Caution: Brian Scott
Top 5 Finishers:
1st: Kyle Busch
2nd: Elliott Sadler
3rd: Brian Vickers
4th: Joey Logano
5th: Matt Kenseth
Notables Not in Top 5:
7th: Regan Smith
8th: Sam Hornish Jr.
9th: Kasey Kahne
11th: Austin Dillon
28th: Travis Pastrana
32nd: Trevor Bayne
Credits
-My Own Notes
-Statistics:
http://racing-reference.info/race/2013_VFW_Sport_Clips_Help_a_Hero_200/B
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/nationwide-series/leaderboard/leaderboard-live.html#
-Image:
http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2013/0510/rpm_g_kyle-busch2_mb_600.jpg
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