Toyota begins complete NASCAR domination

Kyle Busch celebrates winning the Bashas' Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway. It was Busch's second consecutive victory in the NASCAR Nationwide Series

Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR

First it was the truck series, and this year it has spread to the Nationwide and Cup series – Toyota's expected complete domination of NASCAR is in full swing. Kyle Busch liked the taste of victory so much that he came back for a second helping.

After picking up his first win of the season in NASCAR's Nationwide Series last Saturday at Texas, Busch staved off a determined challenge from Carl Edwards to win Friday night's Bashas' Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway.

In a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took the race two laps beyond its scheduled 200 laps, Busch crossed the finish line .241 seconds ahead of Edwards. The victory was Busch's 13th in the series and the fourth for Toyota this season. The 22-year-old led 133 laps on the evening.

Denny Hamlin ran third, followed by Kevin Harvick and David Ragan. Mike Bliss, Stephen Leicht, points leader Clint Bowyer, David Reutimann and David Stremme completed the top 10.

Edwards passed Busch for the lead on Lap 159 and gradually pulled away to a lead of more than three seconds before a caution for debris slowed the field on Lap 178. That brought the lead-lap cars to the pits for their final stops.

Busch and Edwards each took four tires, with Busch beating the defending series champion out of the pits for a restart on Lap 184. The green-flag run ended before one lap was complete, when Marcos Ambrose spun Landon Cassill in traffic to bring out the seventh caution of the race.

"Those boys won the race for us on pit road," said Busch, who was able to hold off Edwards on restarts after three subsequent cautions.

"He (Edwards) had a great, great racecar that might have been better than this Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry here. He had a great racecar, but it's a good thing we had all those cautions that gave us a chance to get a two-lap bump on him."

Busch held the lead for a restart on Lap 189, and as Edwards was beginning to close in on the No. 18 Toyota, Jason Leffler's spin brought out the eighth yellow flag of the night. The final caution occurred on
Lap 198 when Jeff Burton's No. 29 Chevrolet banged the wall.

Though Edwards closed in on the final lap, he couldn't overtake Busch before time ran out.

"It's too bad somebody's got to lose a race like that," Edwards said. "It was fun, but it's too bad we had to run second. That last caution hurt us a little, and he got us off pit road (on Lap 180). We came in first and went out second."

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