Saturday, September 29 Kansas Speedway Kansas City, Kansas

Kyle Busch salutes the fans after winning the Yellow Transportation 300.

Busch Nips Kenseth in Thrilling Finish
By Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (September 29, 2007) -- Kyle Busch survived a pit road speeding penalty and a 13-lap shootout with polesitter Matt Kenseth to win Saturday's Yellow Transportation 300 NASCAR Busch Series race at Kansas Speedway.

In a race that saw 27 green flag passes for the lead, Busch and Kenseth dueled side-by-side through the closing laps at the 1.5-mile speedway, but Kenseth's bid to pass Busch to the inside on the final circuit fell just short, and Busch's No. 5 Chevrolet crossed the finish line .085 seconds ahead of Kenseth's No. 17 Ford.

Casey Mears came home third, followed by Clint Bowyer and Jamie McMurray. Denny Hamlin, Paul Menard, Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers and Greg Biffle completed the top 10.

It was a bittersweet third victory in the series this season for Busch, who will leave Hendrick Motorsports for Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of the season.

"It's a testament to this team," said Busch, who was penalized for speeding on pit road under caution and restarted from the rear on Lap 96. "It's going to be sad here at the end, but I'm enjoying it right now."

Points leader Carl Edwards brought out the eighth caution of the race on Lap 151, when his No. 60 Ford clobbered the Turn 4 wall.

Edwards, however, seemed preoccupied with an earlier incident involving Kenseth, his teammate, on the restart on Lap 96. Edwards' left front tire went flat after contact with Kenseth's Ford, and that was the beginning of a succession of problems for the points leader.

Edwards had gone to the outside on the restart, and he and Kenseth made contact in heavy traffic, as Kenseth passed Edwards to the inside.

"The reason I was upset was that I don't think my teammate should race me like that," Edwards said, after climbing from his car and giving Kenseth a sarcastic round of applause. "Hopefully, it's just a one-time thing, a little lapse there."

Kenseth didn't feel he did anything wrong.

"I thought I'd left him enough room," he said. "I don't know what he was doing going four-wide up in the marbles on the restart like that."

Kenseth held the lead for a restart on Lap 164 and had the better of a pitched battle against Busch when Brad Keselowski's right front tire went down and crashed hard into the outside wall on Lap 177.

Busch passed Kenseth for the lead under green on Lap 184 as the cars roared off Turn 4, but Bryan Clauson's spin on Lap 185 brought out the record-tying 10th caution of the race and set up the 13-lap sprint to the finish.

"He got a great run on the restart," Kenseth said. "I was loose for about six or seven laps, but then my car started to tighten up, and I could make a run at him."

In a seesaw battle for the owners' championship, the No. 29 Chevrolet of Richard Childress Racing, driven by Burton on Saturday, reclaimed the lead by 54 points over the No. 60 Roush Fenway Ford driven by Edwards.

Complete results and point standings in the Event Stats section following...

Schedule/Broadcast Times*

Practice: Friday, September 28 (SPEED at 3 p.m./AT)

Practice: Friday, September 28 (SPEED at 7 p.m./AT)

Qualifying: Saturday, September 29 (SPEED at 12 P.M./AT)

Pre-Race Show: Saturday, September 29 (ESPN2 & TSN-alt at 4 p.m./AT)

Race: Saturday, September 29 (ESPN2 & TSN-alt at 4:30 p.m./AT) (encore TSN-HD at 8 p.m./AT)

*AT is one hour ahead of ET, i.e. if it's 2 p.m./AT - it's 1 p.m./ET...

Event Stats PDF files unless otherwise noted

Entry List

Qualifying Order

Starting Lineup

Race Results

Driver Point Standings

Green Flag Fast Facts
The Race: Yellow Transportation 300
The Place: Kansas Speedway
The Date: Sept. 29, 20071
Track Layout: 1.5-mile tri-oval
Race Purse: $1,544,672
2006 Winner: Kevin Harvick
2006 Pole: Matt Kenseth
Pre-Race Schedule: Friday – Practice, 1:15-2:15 p.m.; Rookie Practice, 2:30-3:00 p.m.; Final Practice, 4:45 p.m. (one hour, time permitting). Saturday – Qualifying, 10:05 a.m. (impound).
Year-To-Date Standings: click here

Track Map



Green Flag Notes

• Emporia’s (KS) Clint Bowyer (No. 2 BB&T Chevrolet) is scheduled to compete in the Yellow Transportation 300 before resuming his attempt to capture the 2007 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup as one of the 12 drivers in the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup.
• Columbia, Mo., native Carl Edwards (No. 60 Scotts Winterguard Ford) returns to familiar territory as the NASCAR Busch Series points leader and also joins Bowyer as a Chase participant.
• Then there’s the quiet thunder that accompanies series veteran Jason Keller (No. 11 InvestLinc Chevrolet). He’s not in the top 10 in points. He hasn’t run a full season. He drives for a start-up team. But he can produce perhaps the biggest headline of the event. If Keller qualifies – which he must do on time for his CJM Racing team as it is not in the top 30 in the owner point standings – he will be on the starting grid for the 417th time in his career, which will tie Tommy Houston’s all-time starts record. The 37-year-old Keller is the only driver other than Houston to make more than 400 series starts. The man whose record he’s approaching is more than willing to have Keller as the new standard-bearer.
• Busch Series Director Joe Balash on what to watch for at Kansas...“Kansas Speedway is one of the true tri-ovals in NASCAR. Each of these tracks has its own unique points. Kansas is more of a true tri-oval whereas other tracks have more of a double dog leg on the front. “With this type of track cars carry more speed going into Turn 1 than Turn 3. On a true oval the speed is the same in 1 and 3. This causes drivers to use more brake at one end of the track than the other. Crew chiefs and drivers will talk about how the car is better at one end than the other. Fans will see a driver get passed on one end and then pass back at the other, this going on for lap after lap. These differences cause the teams to look for that elusive balance – the car working well on both ends. “Watch for action in Turns 1 and 4. Drivers will take chances going into 1 to gain that extra spot. Having a little extra speed with a loose car coming out of 4 and a driver will be testing the paint on the SAFER barrier.
• As a full-time rookie driver in both the NASCAR Busch Series and in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup, David Ragan still has an opportunity to claim Rookie of the Year honors in both series. With a comfortable 24-point lead with seven races to go over Marcos Ambrose in the NASCAR Busch Series chase, Ragan is in the opposite position in his premier series rookie race. There, he’s in second, 15 points behind Juan Pablo Montoya. Although Montoya is fourth in the NASCAR Busch Series rookie rankings, his season is effectively over in the nation’s No. 2 motorsports series so he can concentrate on his NASCAR NEXTEL Cup program with Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Ragan has eight races remaining in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup competition to become the first driver to claim Rookie of the Year honors in both series in the same season.
• Denny Hamlin’s third win of the season last Saturday at Dover was the 17th for Chevrolet in 2007 and added to the manufacturer’s championship points tally in the Bill France Performance Cup standings. Chevy clinched its 14th crown – building on its series record – following its win at Richmond International Raceway earlier this month. Second-place Ford has two previous wins at Kansas, but those victories came in the first two series races at the track in 2001-02. Kevin Harvick took Chevrolet to victory in this event last year, but Kasey Kahne won third-place Dodge’s first race at the track in 2005. Fourth-place Toyota will be making its series debut at Kansas and will look to improve upon its 1.5-mile track program that’s produced only one top-10 finish so far this year.

IMPORTANT: All information, schedules and/or scheduled events is/are subject to change without notice. Please check with the source to confirm.