Busch wins Dover Nationwide race for Toyota

Kyle Busch captured his fifth Nationwide win of 2014.

We're all aware that the official mascot of the Dover International Speedway is a large concrete monster, with big red eyes, named Myles. He sits in front of the speedway's fan entrance holding a race car in his hand looking like he's going to throw that car if anyone crosses him.

However, when the checkers fell on the September 27th Dover 200, it was a Toyota with the logo Monster Energy who tamed the Myles the Monster.

Kyle Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led the final 101, of 200, laps around Dover's concrete covered one mile oval and scored his fifth series' win of the season and 68th career win in 291 starts. It was also his fifth win at Dover which breaks a series all time win tie with runner up Joey Logano.

The winning move of the race actually came on pit road on lap 99. Busch's crew produced a flawless stop that allowed their driver to get off of pit road first ahead of Joey Logano, who led 95 laps during the first half of the race.

From that point it was all Kyle Busch who led the remaining 101 laps. The margin of victory was 2.545 seconds over runner up Logano. Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher and Elliott Sadler completed the top five.

Wait a minute, haven't we seen this finish before? Actually, yes we have. It was at the Dover race back on May 31st when Busch also beat Logano off of pit road and led the remainder of the laps. Busch has apparently figured out how to work around Myles the Monster and has now swept both Dover races for the second time in his career. The first sweep was back in 2010.

In victory lane Busch said: "the Monster Energy Toyota was just awesome. I can't say enough about our guys. (crew chief) Adam Stevens made some great calls today to keep our track position."

Chase Elliott's third place finish allowed him to gain additional points on his lead over Regan Smith. Elliott now holds a 26 point advantage over his JR Motorsports team mate and a 46 point lead over Ty Dillon in third.

However, Elliott's third place finish almost didn't happen. On lap 41 the caution flag came out for the second time following a two car accident. Elliott, trying to avoid the melee, sustained body damage on the left front headlight area. That contact sent him into the wall which caused damage to the entire right side of the car.

Elliott was able to circle the track, at yellow flag speed, and pit with the lead laps cars. That when the team made a very smart move. They took two tires, when other teams were taking four, and got their car out so Elliott could lead a caution lap thereby gaining a bonus point. One yellow lap later, Elliott returned to pit road for two additional tires and repairs to the right side. He restarted the race mired down in 24th and then, 42 laps later, returned to the top five in the running order.

By the way, that's how a team wins NASCAR championships. by Dave Grayson

Here, Busch celebrates victory in the 2008 Nationwide Series race at Chicagoland. Today, Busch scored his 57th Nationwide win for Toyota.

KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 1st

How was your race car today?

"It was really good — this Monster Energy Toyota Camry was awesome. Can't say enough about the guys. We fought, we battled hard on it — I don't know why I just didn't quite like what we had going on — it shows up in the race. Happy about that. Qualifying just doesn't quite go our way. Everybody on pit road did a great job today. Adam Stevens (crew chief) made some really good calls. Just to get two tires there at the end and stay out front and keep the track position that we had — I felt like that was a good call. That was important. We screwed up going the other way on that here before and so that helped us here today."

What was the difference in the second half of the race?

"Well, even the first half — you know I knew we had a good car and I was kind of biding my time — I was just chilling. I was trying to pass those guys when I could pass those guys. But, the opportunity never really presented itself quick enough I thought. And, then the second half of the race there when we beat the 22 (Joey Logano) guys off pit road — these guys here they did a great on that pit stop to be able to do that. It was good for us to be able to get out front like that — get out in clean air and show what this car had for speed. This Monster Energy Toyota Camry was awesome. It was really, really fast. Can't say enough about all these guys. Adam Stevens (crew chief) and everybody here on this team — they do a great job for me. Our race setup is really good, but it doesn't qualify very good. I'm always — it's just a handful in qualifying to say the least. These guys did a good job though — I'm proud of that. Really like what we got going on. It's good to be back here in victory lane again."

Was the car as good the first half of the race?

"It never looks as good because you're not able to pass guys and just drive through the field, but I don't know that anybody did that. I mean the 9 (Chase Elliott) I guess made up spots. He got back to third from having his issue there with traffic, while we were racing. For me, the fastest car here I had a hard time passing the 60 (Chris Buescher) and the 2 (Joey Logano) in front of me. I couldn't quite get to them. I couldn't quite get around the outside of them — there was just too much track you had to make up. You didn't have enough motor to do it down the straightaways. It's frustrating when you have those moments going on, but it's early enough in the race that you just kind of bide your time and see what you can learn, try to pick at it and get yourself better for tomorrow."

What did you learn for tomorrow's race?

"Well, I thought that there was going to be a better outside lane. I got it going early in the race and then that second run when I was trying to pass the 60 (Chris Buescher) and the 2 (Joey Logano) I couldn't get it going until after we had slowed down to a certain point on tires. And then I got it going again kind of. When you're out front and your car is good and you're on the bottom — there's no way that anybody can beat you like that. It's tough to make up ground on guys when they're better than you and they're running the groove you want to run."

ELLIOTT SADLER, No. 11 SportClips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 5th

How does it feel to get your first top-five finish since Iowa in May?

"It's been too long for this race team. Proud of everybody on this SportClips Toyota. We worked really hard — made a lot of adjustments yesterday after practice. Chris (Gayle, crew chief) did a good job on adjustments today. Top-five here at Dover — probably the best we ran at Dover here the past two years. We'll take it, try to take this momentum and move on to Kansas"

Toyota Racing