7-21-10 —     Kyle Busch beat teammate Joey Logano in a green-white-checkered-flag finish to win Friday night’s Dollar General 300 Nationwide Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.

    “It wasn’t easy,” said Busch, who can now claim second on the Nationwide Series all-time win all to himself, for his 37th career win pushed him past Kevin Harvick, who Busch had been tied with after winning June 26 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. “We had the track position when it mattered and the car got really, really tight on us. But, these guys never gave up. They knew I had it in me.”

    Brian Scott, David Reutimann, Jason Leffler, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Reed Sorenson, Jamie McMurray, and Justin Allgaier rounded out the top-10.

    Danica Patrick finished a career-best 24th in her fifth series start.

    Top-10 points leaders after 18 of 35: 1. Keselowski-2911, 2. Edwards-2684, 3. Kyle Busch-2496, 4. Allgaier-2457, 5. Harvick-2314, 6. Menard-2207, 7. Logano-2108, 8. S. Wallace-2049, 9. Gaughan-2015, 10. Leffler-1994



DILLON WINS IOWA TRUCK RACE

    Austin Dillon, grandson of Richard Childress won Sunday’s Camping World Truck race at Newton, Iowa. It was NASCAR’s first visit to the track, and the first career win for Dillon, who was driving the black No. 3 Chevrolet.



PATRICK BRINGS IT HOME IN ONE PIECE

    Danica Patrick finished 24th, two laps down in the Nationwide race at Chicagoland, but she did finish the race, and brought her car home without getting involved in any wrecks.

    The 28-year-old IndyCar Series star, competing in her fifth career Nationwide race for JR Motorsports, remained out of trouble the entire night – including when she realized she had a flat tire and managed to come down pit road without incident.

    “I learned so much about simple things, about how to get in and out of the throttle and just how important it is to not enter high but enter with a nice arc, little things like that, that make a world of difference,” Patrick said.

    “These cars are so on the edge, the grip level, there’s not much there. So you put it in the slightly wrong position and it goes [around] on you. … The last part of that race was good for me. I brought it home. I would have loved to have a top-20 [finish] but that’s OK.”

    Earlier in the week, Patrick said she was disappointed with her performance in the previous four races, but had come to the realization that her NASCAR career is going to be a slow learning process.

    Her best finish was 30th in her four previous Nationwide Series starts. She has been involved in accidents in three of the four races and did not finish two of them.

    “It was just a really nice, calm night,” said Patrick. “Nothing big happened. It was steady. We were running our whole laps. There was nothing big in the race that put us in a bad position.

    “It was nice to do instead of having all these other things come at you and crashing and spinning and stuff like that. The last part of that race felt really good for me. I learned a lot from the other drivers out there watching their lines.”



    Weekend Racing: The Nationwide and Camping World teams are at Gateway Raceway, just outside St. Louis, MO. The Cup teams have an off weekend as they prepare for the Brickyard 400, at Indianapolis on July 25.

    Fri., July 16, Camping World Trucks, race 11 of 25; Starting time: 8:30 pm ET; TV: Speed.

    Sat., July 17, Nationwide Dodge Dealers 250, race 19 of 35: Starting time: 7:30 pm ET: TV: ESPN2.

    Racing Trivia Question: What color is Todd Bodine’s hair?

    Last Week’s Question: Who is the defending Camping World Truck Series champion? Answer: Ron Hornaday.

    You may contact the Racing Reporter at: hodgesnews@earthlink.net