Kyle Busch Beats His Way to Bristol Nationwide Win

Kyle Busch dominated the Food City 250 Nationwide race at Bristol Friday night, surviving a tangle with Brad Keselowski and spinning him out in retaliation before going on to a victory by about 10 car lengths over Jason Leffler.

It was Busch's 10th victory of the season in 20 starts, tying a Nationwide record set by himself in 2008 and also by Sam Ard.

And judging from the boos of the crowd, it was one of the least popular wins of his love-to-be-hated career.

After winning the truck race here, Busch now has a chance to sweep all three Bristol races if he can win the Sprint Cup event Saturday night.

Behind Busch and Leffler, Elliott Sadler finished third, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards.

With about 40 laps to go in the 250-lap race, Busch caught up with Keselowski, who had taken the lead somewhat late in the race, and the two began battling side by side for the lead. Busch held the inside line and could get a nose ahead of Keselowski, but couldn't make it stick for several laps.

When he finally did get ahead, Keselowski hit the back of his car, nearly knocked Busch out of control and retook the lead.

Busch was able to quickly recover and got back to Keselowski in turn three, where he made sure he spun out the Dodge before racing past.

"I raced and raced and raced him for 12 or 15 laps," Busch said in victory lane. "I thought I had him cleared on the back (stretch) and I moved up in front of him and instead of him doing an Earnhardt crossover move, he decided he would just run into the back of me and put me in the fence. So, that's Brad Keselowski. So, you know, I went down into the next corner and dumped him. He does it to everybody else. Why can't I do it to him? So, whatever. It don't matter.

I said, 'Forget it, man. You play that game, I'll play it back.' So I dumped him."

Busch was roundly booed after the victory and he toyed with the crowd after his burnout, cupping his ear as if he couldn't hear, and then dismissively waving them off.

Keselowski, meanwhile, was far less irate that one might expect.

"It was hard racing, I was going for the win," Keselowski said. "He almost cleared me and kind of took it for granted that I would lift and I didn't. I've got my hands tied behind my back (because of NASCAR probation) so I'm not going to complain about it. We're gong to go to work and and try to win them the right way."

"We got up to the front legitimately," Keselowski said. "And then we got intentionally wrecked. We'll go to work and work on beating his ass.

Keselowski said he raced Busch clean.

"Early in the race, I had the lead on a restart and he ran me up the track in (Turns) 3 and 4 and I lifted, gave him the lane there when I didn't have too," Keselowski said. "Just being a good guy, because I'm a member of the good guy club. But when the end of the race comes, man you don't let people in line. They ought to know better than try and take it. That answers it all right there. I'm on probation for racing hard and that allows everyone to intentionally wreck me. We made good moves in the race and worked our way to the front. We had a great car. The fans saw what happened. He'll get his."

Keselowski finished 14th, but still has a 313-point lead over Edwards for the Nationwide championship.