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Kyle Busch Wins Inaugural Quaker State 400
Written by Andrew McClellan   
Saturday, 09 July 2011 22:58

kyle-busch

The debut of NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series at Kentucky Speedway will go down in history as being dominated by the Busch brothers, who combined to lead 166 of the 267-lap event, with younger brother Kyle forever etched on the winner's trophy as the first to conquer the 1.5-mile oval in the Bluegrass State.

 

"This is cool man. This is right up there with the best of them," said Kyle Busch, who plans to run a Late Model race in Wisconsin on Sunday.

 

Kyle started from the pole and traded the lead with Kurt Busch before building an eight-second at the halfway point.

 

Two late-race cautions bunched the field for a finish that nearly went into overtime. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. blew a left front tire with 14 laps remaining. Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski and Jimmie Johnson, running in the top-five at the time, elected to visit pit road during the ensuing caution handing the lead to Kyle Busch.

 

Matt Kenseth lined up second on the restart with eight to go followed by  Kurt Busch, David Reutimann and Keselowski.

 

Clint Bowyer slammed hard into the outside after he experienced tire failure to bring out the final caution on lap 261.

 

Kyle Busch led Johnson, Kurt Busch, David Reutimann and Keselowski on the last restart and pulled away to win by 0.179 seconds over Reutimann, his best performance of the season.

 

Johnson finished third with Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards completing the top-five. Dale, Jr. finished 30th and Bowyer 35th.

 

Kyle Busch took command of the point standings with the win and leaves Kentucky with a four-point advantage on Edwards.

 

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