Saturday, November 10 Phoenix Int'l Raceway Phoenix, Arizona

Kyle Busch drives under the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Busch Series race at Phoenix - his second NASCAR win in as many days.

Busch's Win Sets up Run for Weekend Triple

AVONDALE, Ariz. (November 10, 2007) -- Kyle Busch held off Matt Kenseth by .305 seconds in a green-white-checkered finish that took the Arizona.Travel 200 NASCAR Busch Series race three laps beyond its posted distance Saturday at Phoenix International Raceway.

The victory, coupled with his Craftsman Truck Series win at Phoenix on Friday night, put Busch in position to record an unprecedented triple in Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 Nextel Cup event -- winning a race in each of NASCAR's top three national series at the same track on the same weekend.

In his final Busch Series start for Hendrick Motorsports, Busch led all but one of the last 116 laps (132 overall), collected his fourth win of the year and his 11th in the series. Despite problems with his power steering, Kenseth posted his seventh runner-up finish of the season.

Balky power steering wasn't Kenseth's only problem. The right rear quarter panel of his No. 17 Ford was found to be too high during post-race inspection. If any penalties are forthcoming, NASCAR will announce them during the coming week.

Polesitter Clint Bowyer was third, and Scott Wimmer ran fourth in the No. 29 Chevrolet, failing by two points to clinch the owners' championship for Richard Childress Racing. With a 194-point lead over the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevy, Jeff Burton, who will drive the No. 29 next week in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, can clinch the owners' title for Childress simply by starting the race.

Though he will start 38th in Sunday's Cup race, Busch believes he has a chance to complete the weekend sweep.

"It would mean the most," said Busch, who was scheduled to fly to Las Vegas after Saturday's race to compete in a 140-lap late model stock car race in his hometown. "It would be a great honor to have that. I wouldn't have it any other way, but it's a hard race with the COT (Car of Tomorrow), so you've got to be able to get out front. You've got to have a good enough car, and you've got to get track position.

"I think we zeroed in on some things in practice today that really helped our car and made it at least where it's a top-five or top-10-capable car. There are still some pretty good guys out there that we're going to have to race against."

Saturday's race was red-flagged for the second time on Lap 198 because of a violent frontstretch crash involving David Ragan, Richard Johns, Stanton Barrett and Dario Franchitti. After an 11-minute stoppage, Busch took the green flag for the green-white-checkered finish.

Busch took the lead for the third time on Lap 85 when he powered the No. 5 Chevrolet beneath Kenseth in Turn 1. That pass took place during a green-flag run that began on Lap 49 and ended with a debris caution on Lap 116. (Kenseth led Lap 117 on pit road, but Busch was out first to retake the lead, which he held for the rest of the race.

Through two subsequent cautions, the second for a frontstretch pileup involving Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle, Steve Wallace and Jason Keller on an aborted restart on Lap 138, Busch remained out front.

NASCAR red-flagged the race for six minutes after the Lap 138 incident, and Busch led the field to the green flag for a restart on Lap 142, with Bowyer and Kenseth in pursuit. After a caution for Franchitti's spin on the backstretch on Lap 148 -- thanks to a bump from Brad Keselowski -- Kenseth passed Bowyer for second position on Lap 152.

Though Kenseth harried Busch over a subsequent 19-lap green-flag run, Busch held off the Roush Fenway driver for the remainder of the race.

Kenseth didn't blame his inability to catch Busch on his sluggish power steering.

Complete Race Results and Point Standings in the Event Stats section below... Checkered Flag Fast Facts

• Kyle Busch won the Arizona.Travel 200, his 11th victory in 108 NASCAR Busch Series races.
• This is his fourth victory and 16th top-10 finish in 19 races in 2007. He has finished first or second in his last six NASCAR Busch Series races.
• This is his first victory and third top-10 finish in five races at Phoenix International Raceway.
• He became just the second driver to sweep a NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at a track in the same weekend. Greg Biffle did so here in 2001.
• Matt Kenseth (second) posted his eighth top-10 finish in 10 Phoenix races.
• Clint Bowyer (third) posted his fourth top-10 finish in six races at Phoenix – all fourth or better.
• Marcos Ambrose (15th) was the highest finishing rookie.
• Richard Childress (No. 29) retained the lead in the car owner championship, leading Joe Gibbs (No. 20) by 194 points. Childress only needs to have the car start the race to clinch the owner’s championship next week in Homestead.

Schedule/Broadcast Times*

Practice: Friday, November 9 (SPEED at 1 p.m./AT)

Practice: Friday, November 9 (SPEED at 4:30 p.m./AT)

Qualifying: Saturday, November 10 (SPEED at 1 p.m/AT)

Pre-Race Show: Saturday, November 10 (ESPN2 & TSN-HD at 5 p.m./AT)

Race: Saturday, November 10 (ESPN2 & TSN-HD at 5:30 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

Point Standings - Driver

Green Flag Fast Facts
The Race: Arizona.Travel 200
The Place: Phoenix International Raceway
Track Layout: 1-mile D-shaped oval
Race Purse: $1,408,944
2006 Winner: Matt Kenseth
2006 Pole: Matt Kenseth
Pre-Race Schedule: Friday – Practice, 10-11:20 a.m.; Rookie Practice, 1:05-1:30 p.m.; Final Practice, 1:35-2:35 p.m. Saturday – Qualifying, 10:05 a.m. (impound).
Year-To-Date Standings: click here

Track Map



Green Flag Notes

• Now that Carl Edwards (No. 60 World Financial Group Ford) has clinched the NASCAR Busch Series driver title, his team can let out a collective breath and focus on wins in the last two races of the season. And to start the final sprint, his record at Phoenix International Raceway bodes well. Edwards won the 2005 fall race from the pole and has four top fives and five top-10 finishes overall in his five races at Phoenix. The No. 60 team also has extra motivation. Its leader, crew chief Pierre “PK” Kuettel, is a Phoenix native who would covet a win at his home track. The crew also has to swallow that it likely won’t win the owner championship to go along with Edwards’ driver title.
  
  The No. 29 Richard Childress Racing team is the frontrunner for the owner crown. So the impetus for wins is paramount to the No. 60 crew these final two races. The No. 29 Holiday Inn Chevrolet comes to Phoenix leading the owner standings by 113 points over the No. 20 Chevy of Joe Gibbs Racing. In order to clinch the owner title, the No. 29, to be driven by Scott Wimmer at Phoenix, needs leave this weekend with a 196-point advantage over the No. 20 – an 83-point gain. The split title has happened only once before in NASCAR national series competition – in 2003, Brian Vickers won the driver championship but RCR won the owner title with the driver duo of Kevin Harvick and Johnny Sauter. Jeff Burton has shared the No. 29 ride with Wimmer this year.
  
  Either way, the battle between the two teams should be electrifying at Phoenix. The last five races at the one-mile track have been won by Roush Fenway Racing or RCR. Matt Kenseth (No. 17 Arby’s Ford) is the defending race winner while Clint Bowyer (No. 2 BB&T Chevrolet) won last April.
• Although born near Toronto, Canada, Pierre Kuettel moved to Phoenix shortly thereafter and calls the area home. Other happy Phoenix returns feature J.J. Yeley (No. 1 Miccosukee Resort Chevrolet). He has three top-10s in six career series races at his home track and craves a win there. Also, Michael McDowell (No. 00 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota), who made his series debut last week at Texas where he finished 20th, was born in Phoenix. McDowell, 22, is scheduled to race for Michael Waltrip Racing in the final two races of the year. He made his NASCAR debut two weeks ago at Martinsville in the Craftsman Truck Series (30th) and has won four times on the ARCA circuit this season. Additionally, Stephen Leicht spent an abbreviated time as an Arizona resident, living in the city of Ahwatukee, a suburb of Phoenix between the ages of three and five. He began racing go-karts in Arizona before his family made a permanent move to Asheville, N.C.
• Kevin Harvick’s win at Texas last week not only made him the all-time series leader in victories at the track with four, but also moved him out of a second-place tie with Jack Ingram for second on the all-time win list. Harvick’s win gives him 32 in 190 races; Ingram had 31 in 274 events. Mark Martin is the career leader with 47 victories in 224 races. Harvick will join Kyle Busch (No. 5 Sta-Green/Lowe’s Chevrolet) with triple-duty driving at Phoenix. Both are entered in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races.
• Brad Keselowski (No. 88 U.S. NAVY Chevrolet) is staging a hard charge in the series’ Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings. Since joining JR Motorsports in mid-July, Keselowski has gone from fifth place and 66 points behind third place (then Juan Pablo Montoya) to fourth-but more importantly-only one point behind Kyle Krisiloff (No. 14 Lily/Walgreens Ford) in third. Keselowski has been one of the hottest series regulars in the season’s second half, posting five top 10s and his career-best finish, a sixth-place effort last Saturday at Texas where 17 double-duty drivers were entered.
• Brad Coleman (No. 18 Carino’s Chevrolet), the 19-year-old from Houston, Texas who fashioned solid finishes while running a partial 16-race schedule for Joe Gibbs Racing this year, makes his final start for the team before moving to Brewco Motorsports and a full-time ride in 2008. Coleman claimed his first career pole at Talladega in addition to registering three top fives and five top 10s this year. Coleman will also run a limited NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule next year for Hall of Fame Racing, whose team owner, Tom Garfinkel, is executive vice president of the Phoenix-based Arizona Diamondbacks. The No. 18 team will also host Steve McCarty (R), who wrote the Steve Miller Band hit “Fly Like an Eagle,” in their pit on Saturday.
• Jason Leffler will have a busy schedule this week at Phoenix, competing in four races in three days. He will run the USAC Midget and Silver Crown races on Thursday night, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on Friday night and the Arizona.Travel 200 on Saturday afternoon. … This Veterans Day weekend the No. 88 U.S. NAVY team will honor the casualties and survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor with a special Pearl Harbor Survivors Association decal on the car. On Dec. 7, 1941, 2,390 U.S. personnel were killed and 1,178 were wounded in the attack. The association was formed in 1958 with the goal to “Remember Pearl Harbor – Keep America Alert.” Also Team Rensi’s cars – the No. 35 McDonald’s Ford of Bobby Hamilton Jr. and the No. 25 FreeCreditReport.com Ford of Richard Johns - will adorn a special logo for a non-profit organization, Freedom Is Not Free, aimed at “aiding wounded service members, their families and the families of the fatally wounded.”

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