NASCAR Truck race Notebook

Kyle Busch made the rest of the NASCAR drivers look like monkeys at Fontana on Sunday

FMCM

There's only one way to describe it: Kyle Busch just simply beat up the competition en route to winning Saturday's San Bernardino County 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at the Auto Cub Speedway. He performance was dominant on the track and his Billy Ballew Motorsports team was dominant on pit road. When the checkers flew at the end of the scheduled 100 laps Busch crossed the start finish line with a full nine second lead over runner up Todd Bodine. That's how strong his Miccosukee Resort Toyota Tundra was. At the beginning of the race he roared out of the front row pole position and by lap number six he held a three second led over his nearest competitor.

Now for you fans who prefer to read negative comments about Kyle Busch you may be disappointed. There only seems to be one negative comment available from this race: Kyle Busch didn't drive a completely flawless race because he only led 95 of the 100 laps.

Despite the dominance from the Busch team there was actually some very good racing in the San Bernardino County 200. This was especially true of the drivers who were racing all throughout the top ten positions.

The rhythm of the race was only slowed by two caution flags. The first one came on lap 24 when the trucks driven by Brian Scott and Mike Skinner found each other coming off of turn four. The ensuing contact sent Scott's Toyota hard into the front stretch wall and ended his afternoon early. Skinner was able to continue and eventually finished 11th. The second caution flag, on lap 44, was a quick one due to debris on the race track.

Following his second consecutive NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win at the Auto Club Speedway, Kyle Busch emerged from his truck to take his traditional bow before the fans. Once he parked in the speedway's Gatorade victory lane the happy race winner said "It's a phenomenal opportunity to be here with these guys from Billy Ballew Motorsports. I've got to thank Miccosukee Resorts, Red Top Auto Auctions and Nos Energy Drink. This team just did a flawless job today. Our Toyota was awesome and ran really strong out front. I've got to thank Camping World for their series support and also thanks to NASCAR and all of their series' officials. It was quite a day. It may have looked easy but it's not that easy driving these things at nearly 200 MPH out here. This is really special. I love coming out here to California because the fans are just great here."

Todd Bodine followed last week's season opening win at Daytona with a second place finish at the Auto Club Speedway in his Germain Racing Toyota. Commenting on his race "the Onion" said "Kyle really had us covered tonight and we just weren't quite as good in the center of the corners. During the long green runs our tires started getting hot and I started pushing. After I go back to second I started saying the tires and I think I saved them a little too much because he got this big lead on me. I also felt a little vibration and I wasn't going to take the chance of losing second which is great although it's first loser. We just move on to Atlanta and try to beat him there."

Series sophomore driver Chad McCumbee drove his GPS Dot Com to third and was thrilled with the performance of his team especially with the pit strategy. "That's Bobby Dotter," he said adding "he's one of the best I've ever seen when it comes to pit road strategy. I wasn't real sure how things were going to work out. It was obviously a handful for awhile. But once we settled down we were able to maintain our grip. I was worried at first that there wasn't enough with the new tires but it turned out it was there and it really took off and ran great for about five to seven laps and then it seemed like everything leveled out. I think it made our truck better and our truck was continuously coming on there at the end so hats off to my guys. I also can't thank GPS Store Dot Com, Garmin and ASI Limited for coming on board with us."

Finishing fourth was T J Bell who had to do a lot of hard work to get there in his Home For The Holidays Dot Org Toyota. Prior to the race his Red Horse Racing Team was forced to change an engine which meant their truck had to start at the rear of the field. With a big smile on his face Bell said "when you pass that many trucks in a truck as good as this one that says a lot for our Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra. I really want to thank our new sponsor Home For The Holidays as well as Vegas Water Sports Dot Com. Being in a race like this was just a blast."

David Starr completed the top five in his Zachary-Harris Trucking Toyota and said "this HT Motorsports organization just works together really well and this Zachary Toyota Tundra was really awesome today. We got ourselves back up near the front and we just needed about ten more laps to get there because we were coming. It was a great race and I'm glad to be back into the top five. I just say enough for my team this truck was just awesome today." By Dave Grayson