Trucks -- Black Flag Gives Hornaday a Texas Win

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Ron Hornaday won the WinStar World Casino 400k at Texas Motor Speedway Friday night when Johnny Sauter was black-flagged for changing lanes on the final restart.

Sauter took the lead from Hornaday on Lap 130 (of a scheduled 167), but was penalized for moving down in front of Hornaday on a green-white-checkered restart before crossing the start/finish line.  Both Sauter and Hornaday spun their tires on the restart.  Sauter finished ahead of the field, but was shown the black flag at the stripe; he was scored with a 22nd-place finish, the last car on the lead lap.  Sauter later contended that he left Hornaday a lane to race in, but doesn't have much of a case.

It was Hornaday's 48th career Camping World Truck Series win, the first of the season, and his third at the track.  The race went one lap beyond the scheduled distance.

Since this week's Cup race is 1500 miles away in Pocono, this was a exclusively a Truck Series regular affair.  Rookie Parker Klingerman, making just his tenth career series start, finished second.  David Mayhew was third for a new career-best finish.  Brian Ickler recovered from a spin of Lap 50 that put him a lap down to finish fourth in his first start of the season.  Rookie Joey Coulter was fifth, matching his career-best finish set last week at Kansas.  (Race results)

Sauter still managed to increase his lead in the series points standings by eight points.  He now leads Cole Whitt, who finished 28th, by 20 points.  Hornaday (-33) jumped three spots into third, followed by Austin Dillon (-35) and Matt Crafton (-41).

The Fight or Altercation or Whatever It Was

If you're a NASCAR fan, you're probably aware that there was an altercation between Richard Childress and Kyle Busch after Saturday's Truck race. I was trying to wait to say anything about it until I knew more about what happened. Finally, it looks like some facts are coming out.

Busch, who owns his own Truck team, was racing hard for fifth position with Joey Coulter, who was driving a Childress-owned truck. Coulter won the position, finishing ahead of Busch. On the cooldown lap, Busch pulled alongside Coulter and their trucks bumped.

It may or may not have been a congratulatory tap; Busch claims it was, several stories on the incident have said that Busch was showing his displeasure but I've haven't heard anything to see how they draw that conclusion. In any case, that kind of bumping is quite common on cooldown laps.

But Childress didn't like it.  He and Busch have had several disagreements over Busch damaging RCR equipment.  There has been some history between Busch and RCR drivers, most recently at Darlington with the pit road/unattended car incident.  After Saturday's Truck race, the 65-year-old Childress put the 26-year-old Busch in a headlock and punched him three times.

NASCAR president Mike Helton gave a statement Sunday morning in which he cleared Busch of any wrongdoing:  "We've concluded that the driver of the No. 18 truck, Kyle Busch, did nothing to provoke or to cause the reactions that, in our opinion, would have violated probation.  He did nothing that would have warranted the actions of Richard Childress."

Childress was not ejected from the track, but his movements were restricted during Sunday's STP 400.  He was not allowed on pit road.  It looks like more penalties might be forthcoming.  NASCAR met with Busch, Childress, and Joe Gibbs, the owner of Busch's Cup car, then issued a harsher statement than the earlier Helton statement, including...

"Richard Childress' actions were not appropriate and fell far short of the standard we expect of owners in this sport. We have met with Childress this morning and made our position very clear to him. Further, we expect he will make it clear to all in his organization to ensure this situation does not escalate any further. We will announce our actions [in] regard [to] this incident Monday.

"Kyle Busch remains on probation with NASCAR, and we continue to watch his actions carefully. However, we have determined that Kyle's involvement in this incident does not violate his probation, and no further action is required."

Busch and RCR driver Kevin Harvick are on probation until June 15 for the incident at Darlington.

From the Twitter Thingy

Jimmie Johnson, a few hours after the race...

Man... came home to a house with no power. Tonight should be fun.Mon Jun 06 00:21:46 via Twitter for AndroidJimmie Johnson
JimmieJohnson

A little later, there was this...

Yes the power bill has been paid (Haha) and I have my gen up and running now. We have a few things working... my beer is cold so I'm happy.Mon Jun 06 00:57:55 via Twitter for AndroidJimmie Johnson
JimmieJohnson

Cup -- Keselowski's Fuel Strategy Pays Off at Kansas

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Brad Keselowski's fuel strategy paid off with a win in Sunday's STP 400 at Kansas Speedway.  Keselowski got 57 laps out of his final tank of gas and finished 2.813 seconds ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Just like last week's Sprint Cup race at Charlotte, a long green flag run at the end made it a fuel mileage race.  And also like last week, Earnhardt came up on the wrong end of the fuel strategy game.  Junior ran out of gas on the way to the win at Charlotte and coasted home with in seventh place.  This week, he finished second waiting for Keselowski to run out.

It was Keselowski's second Cup win; he got his first win at Talladega in April 2009, sixty races ago.  His previous best finish at Kansas Speedway was 13th in 2009.

Earnhardt should have had enough gas to move up and put some pressure on Keselowski.  Earnhardt made his last stop on Lap 215, five laps later than Keselowski.  But he was in fuel conservation mode at the end and didn't try to force the issue.  The same was true of  Denny Hamlin, who, like Earnhardt, also ran out of gas at Charlotte.  Hamlin also had to conserve at the end and finished third.

Jeff Gordon finished fourth.  Carl Edwards was fifth.  They were the top finishers among those that had to top off with gas in the closing laps.  (Race results) 

Tony Stewart appeared to have the winning strategy.  He pitted on the same lap as Keselowski and had a big lead, but his crew finally decided they didn't get enough gas in the car.  He pitted for a splash in the closing laps and finished eighth.

Polesitter Kurt Busch dominated, leading 152 of the 267 laps, including most of the latter stage of the race.  He didn't get the caution he was looking for, and his final splash of gas gave him a ninth-place finish.

Edwards's lead in the series points standings got four points larger.  He now leads Jimmie Johnson by 40 points.  Earnhardt moved into third place, just one point behind Johnson.  After an eleventh-place finish, Kevin Harvick dropped two spots to fourth, 43 points behind Edwards.  Kyle Busch is fifth, 60 points back.

Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman round out the Top Ten.  Hamlin is eleventh, just one point behind Newman, and Greg Biffle is just five points out.  Jeff Gordon could claim one wildcard spot in the Chase.  Keselowski is now seven points behind Paul Menard to crack the Top Twenty; if so, Sunday's win would make him eligible for the other wildcard spot.

Nationwide -- Allgaier Coasts to Victory at Chicagoland

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Justin Allgaier coasted to the win in Saturday night's STP 300 at Chicagoland Speedway, finishing 1.719 seconds ahead of Carl Edwards.  Both Allgaier and Edwards ran out of gas on the final lap, but Allgaier ran out a few seconds after Edwards and had enough momentum to coast to the stripe.

It was Allgaier's second career Nationwide Series win, and the second win of the season for a Nationwide-only driver.  It was Allgaier's first win at Chicagoland, the hometown track for the Riverton, Illinois, native.

With a long green run at the end, fuel became an issue for a lot of the field.  Carl Edwards dominated the race, leading 144 of the 200 laps, but it appeared to be a two-car race with Edwards battling Elliott Sadler for most of the final quarter of the race.  Edwards finally got around Sadler and led 24 of the final 25 laps.  Allgaier was running a distant third, but was slowly reeling in the leaders as the laps wound down.  Sadler had to pit with a tire going down with just six laps to go, ending his hopes for a victory.

As they began the final lap, Allgaier was close behind Edwards.  Edwards ran out of gas as they were going into Turn Three.  Allgaier swerved around him, then ran about 100 yards further before running of of gas himself.

Trevor Bayne, who made his return to the track after a six-race layoff due to a mysterious illness, finished third, the first car still under power.  After the race, he lamented that maybe his team had tried to conserve too much gas at the end.  If they had run a little harder sooner they might have been able to take advantage of the race leaders running out of gas in front of them.  Aric Almirola finished fourth, Jason Leffler fifth.  Allgaier, Bayne, Almirola and Leffler all scored their highest Nationwide finishes of the season.  (Race results)

The tire going down cost Sadler the lead in the series points standings.  Reed Sorenson, who finished sixth, moved ahead of Sadler, who finished 11th, by two points.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-6) is now third, followed by Allgaier (-11) and Almirola (-46).

Trucks -- Bowyer Dominates at Kansas

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Kansas native Clint Bowyer dominated Saturday's O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway.  Bowyer led 124 (of 167) laps and cruised to a 1.695-second victory over Johnny Sauter.

Bowyer picked up his third career victory in just his eleventh start in the Camping World Truck Series.  It was his first start at Kansas Speedway.  It was his first victory in front of his hometown crowd in any NASCAR national series.  He has two second place finishes at the track -- one in the 2007 Cup race and one in the 2008 Nationwide race.

Bowyer's only real snag occurred on a restart on Lap 112.  Bowyer pitted and took four tires and enough fuel to finish the race.  With the cars that stayed out and those that took just two tires, Bowyer was mired back in 11th position on the restart, but he moved quickly through the traffic and regained the lead on Lap 122.

Bowyer led the final 46 laps.  He briefly battled for the lead with Sauter on the final restart on Lap 138 before pulling away to the easy victory.

Todd Bodine finished third, followed by James Buescher and Joey Coulter.  (Race results)

Sauter takes over the lead in the series points standings after Cole Whitt's 15th-place finish.  Sauter leads Whitt by 12 points.  Austin Dillon (-30), who finished 12th, moved ahead of Matt Crafton (-32) to take over the third spot.  Timothy Peters (-47) rounds out the Top Five.

A Qualifying Tweek

NASCAR is still fine-tuning the new rules on qualifying order.  On Tuesday they announced a change for the Nationwide and Truck Series effective this weekend.

The order teams qualified used to be set by a random draw.  At the start of the season, NASCAR changed the rules, setting the qualifying order by practice speeds with the slowest cars going out first.  The cars were split into two groups -- the cars that were locked into the race qualified before the go-or-go-homers.  Now, in the Nationwide and Truck Series, starting this weekend at Chicagoland and Kansas respectively, the entire field will be sorted for qualifying based on practice speeds.

Update:  NASCAR later announced that the Sprint Cup Series will also make the change, but it won't happen until next weekend at Pocono.

Tweet of the Week

I hope we can keep it a while! RT @JimmieJohnson: Hey @KevinHarvick, can I have my horseshoe back? Please?Tue May 31 00:11:51 via Seesmic for AndroidKevin Harvick
KevinHarvick

Hope you can follow Twitterese.

Cup -- Harvick Snatches an Improbable Win

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There was no way NASCAR was going to top what happened today at Indy, right?  I don't know; they might have pulled it off. 

Kevin Harvick came out of nowhere to win Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway when Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran out of gas the last time down the backstretch.

Just like Indy, it came down to fuel mileage.  A lot of cars were running low on gas, and then there's a green-white-checkered finish to push the issue further.  Earnhardt and Kasey Kahne were on the front row for the final restart, both a long time past the last win and both running on fumes.  Kahne ran out of gas on the restart, stacking up traffic behind him.  There were a few cars sliding around and going in the grass, but nobody was hitting much of anything so NASCAR kept it green. 

Harvick dove down low around the jam and was suddenly in third.  Ahead of him was Denny Hamlin who was trying to chase down Earnhardt.  Earnhardt was about a half-mile from breaking a 104-race winning drought.  Then, coming down the backstretch for the last time, Earnhardt was suddenly out of gas; Hamlin too, and Harvick scooted by both of them to grab the win.  "We'll take them any way we can get them," Harvick said on the radio after the win.

David Ragan finished second, followed by Joey Logano, Kurt Busch and A. J. Allmendinger.  Earnhardt coasted home seventh, Hamlin tenth.  (Race results)

It looked like Greg Biffle might be headed for a classic Coke 600 victory.  His car was junk and the problems were mounting during the day, but when night fell the car came to him and he was gone.  But when Jimmie Johnson's engine blew to bring out the final caution with four laps to go, Biffle couldn't go the extra distance and pitted for gas just before the race went green again.  During the caution, Harvick got a gas-saving push from his RCR teammates Clint Bowyer and Paul Menard.  The green-white-checkered restart extended the race two laps past the regulation 400-lap distance.

Carl Edwards finished 16th, but extended his points lead to 36.  Harvick moved up three spots to second.  Johnson finished 28th and fell to third, 37 points back.  Earnhardt remains fourth, 43 points back.  Kyle Busch dropped two spots to fifth, 53 points back.  Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman round out the top 10.  (Points standings)

The Indy 500 -- Wheldon Snatches an Improbable Win

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Dan Wheldon picked up an improbable, jaw-dropping victory in the 100th Indy 500 Sunday. 

It came down to fuel mileage.  Danica Patrick led late, but didn't have enough for the end.  Neither did Bertrand Baguette.  When they pitted for fuel in the closing laps, rookie J. R. Hildebrand inherited the lead.  The only question seemed to be if Hildebrand had enough.  Then, going into Turn Four, close enough to coast home if he ran out, he went high to go around a lapped car, got up a tad too high and slid right up into the wall.  Wheldon took advantage, flying past Hildebrand before the caution came out and grabbing the victory.

Wheldon celebrated in Victory Lane, but IndyCar officials huddled for about two hours before declaring him the official winner.  The question seemed to be if Wheldon was in front of Hildebrand before the caution came out freezing the field, but that seemed pretty obvious on a quick replay.

Hildebrand was hoping to be the first rookie to win the Indy 500 since Helio Castroneves in 2001; instead, Wheldon, in a one-race deal with Bryan Herta Autosport, claimed his second Indy 500 victory.  Ironically, Hildebrand took Wheldon's ride at Panther Racing this season.

Hildebrand coasted across the line to claim second, followed by Graham Rahal, Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon.  (Race results)

Nationwide -- Charlotte Results

Image by fdtate via Flickr

Matt Kenseth out-dueled Carl Edwards to win Saturday's Top Gear 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  It was Kenseth's first Nationwide Series start this year, and his first in the new Nationwide car.

The race became a battle between Kenseth, Edwards and Kyle Busch, but the two Fords quickly pulled away after the final restart on Lap 154, leaving Busch to settle for third.  Kenseth, filling in for Trevor Bayne, passed Edwards on Lap 197 (of 200) and pulled away to win by 0.763 as Edwards ran out of gas coming to the finish line.  Roush Fenway Fords have now finished 1-2 in the last two Nationwide races -- a first for the team in the series.  Polesitter Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished fourth to give the team three of the top four finishes.  Reed Sorenson finished fifth.  (Race results)

Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner, now seems to be fully recovered from the mysterious illness that sidelined him since April 23.  The team set him down for one more week as a precaution, and he's expected to be back on the track for next weekend's race at Chicagoland Speedway.  Stenhouse will make his Sprint Cup debut tomorrow subbing for Bayne in the Coca-Cola 600 in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford.

Kimi Raikkonen made his Nationwide Series debut.  It was not a success.  An ill-handling car, a pit road speeding penalty and damage to the front splitter combined to give Raikkonen a 27th-place finish.

Elliott Sadler, who finished tenth, saw his series points lead shrink to just a single point over Stenhouse.  Sorenson is just two points back.  (Standings)

Indy 500: Bump Day

Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti finally made it into the 33-car field for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, but their Andretti Autosport teammates Mike Conway and Ryan Hunter-Reay were bumped.

Patrick failed a technical inspection after a parts change and had to go to the back of the qualifying line.  There she had to sit through a rain delay as the clock ticked down to the close of the qualifying session.  She finally got her chance and turned in a four-lap average of 224.861 mph to qualify 26th.

Andretti sat on the bubble as seven drivers tried to claim his spot.  Alex Lloyd finally knocked him out with a 223.957 mph run.  Andretti got back out on the track and started his run with only 55 seconds left on the clock.  He ran 224.628 mph to qualify 28th and knock Hunter-Reay out of the race.

The starting lineup for the May 29 race:

1. Alex Tagliani, Sam Schmidt Motorsports, 227.472 mph
2. Scott Dixon, Ganassi Racing, 227.340 mph
3. Oriol Servia, Newman/Haas Racing, 227.168 mph
4. Townsend Bell, Sam Schmidt Motorsports, 226.887 mph
5. Will Power, Team Penske, 226.773 mph
6. Dan Wheldon, Bryan Herta Autosport, 226.490 mph
7. Buddy Rice, Panther Racing, 225.786 mph
8. Ed Carpenter, Sarah Fisher Racing, 225.121 mph
9. Dario Franchitti, Ganassi Racing, no time (ran out fuel)
10. Takuma Sato, KV Racing Technology-Lotus, 225.736 mph
11. Vitor Meira, A. J. Foyt Racing, 225.590 mph
12. J. R. Hildebrand, Panther Racing, 225.579 mph
13. James Hinchcliffe, Newman/Haas Racing, 225.572 mph
14. Bertrand Baguette, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 225.285 mph
15. Davey Hamilton, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, 225.250 mph
16. Helio Castroneves, Team Penske, 225.216 mph
17. John Andretti, Andretti Autosport, 224.981 mph
18. E. J. Viso, KV Racing Technology-Lotus, 224.732 mph
19. Bruno Junqueira, A. J. Foyt Racing, 224.691 mph
20. Justin Wilson, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, 224.511 mph
21. Jay Howard, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 224.483 mph
22. Tomas Scheckter, KV-SH Racing, 224.433 mph
23. Tony Kanaan, KV Racing Technology-Lotus, 224.417 mph
24. Simona De Silvestro, HVM Racing, 224.392 mph
25. Paul Tracy, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, 224.939 mph
26. Danica Patrick, Andretti Autosport, 224.861 mph
27. Ryan Briscoe, Team Penske, 224.639 mph
28. Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport, 224.628 mph
29. Charlie Kimball, Ganassi Racing, 224.499 mph
30. Graham Rahal, Ganassi Racing, 224.380 mph
31. Alex Lloyd, Dale Coyne Racing, 223.957 mph
32. Pippa Mann, Conquest Racing, 223.936 mph
33. Ana Beatriz, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, 223.879 mph

Nationwide -- Iowa Results

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Ricky Stenhouse Jr held off Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski to win the John Deere Dealers 250 at Iowa Speedway Sunday.  It was Stenhouse's first NASCAR win and the first Nationwide win for a non-Cup driver since Justin Allgaier won at Bristol in March 2010.


Stenhouse and his Roush teammate Edwards swapped the lead several times in the late stages of the race, but Stenhouse took the lead for good on Lap 232 (of 250).  Edwards finished second, followed by Keselowski, Reed Sorenson and Elliott Sadler.  (Race results)

The race marked the first time that three women competed in the same Nationwide race.  Jennifer Jo Cobb was joined by the Cope twins, Angela and Amber, who were making their series debuts.  The Cope twins spun out on almost the same spot on the racetrack just a few laps apart -- Angela on Lap 117, Amber on Lap 129.  Cobb finished 26th, Angela 28th, and Amber 32nd.

Elliott Sadler still leads the series points standings.  Reed Sorenson is second, now just seven points behind.  Stenhouse moved into third, just eight points back.  Justin Allgaier (-20) dropped to fourth, followed by Jason Leffler (-43).

The Sprint All-Star Race

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Carl Edwards won the race off pit road, then pulled away on the restart and led every lap of the final ten-lap segment to win the 2011 Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway Saturday night.


Edwards won the second and third segments (both 20 laps each) of the four-segment race.  After the third segment, the cars lined up on pit road for a ten-minute intermission.  The cars then left pit road under yellow, then returned for a mandatory four-tire change.  Edwards beat Kyle Busch off pit road, then dominated the final segment, a ten-lap shootout, to win the $1,000,000 grand prize.  In all, Edwards won $1,203,300, the largest amount ever in a single All-Star Race.

Edwards beat Busch to the finish by 0.443 seconds.  David Reutimann finished third, followed by Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle.  Biffle, who won the first segment, a 50-lap affair, led twice for a race-high 46 laps.  (All-Star Race results)  It was Edwards's first All-Star Race win in six starts.  He becomes the eighth different All-Star Race winner in the past eight years.

As All-Star Races go, it was a pretty low-key affair.  No drama, no feuding, very few incidents, just a lot of hard racing.  There were only two cautions for accidents.  Both were one-car slides.  The only real incident of the evening occurred on Lap 2 of the preliminary event, the Sprint Showdown.  Landon Cassill's left rear tire blew causing him to spin.  He came up the track in front of Derrike Cope, who T-boned him in the driver's side door. 

Carl Edwards had some issues after winning the race while attempting a celebratory spin through the grass.  He went across a paved strip, then, when he hit the grass again, the nose of his car dug in and almost flipped the car over.  The front end of his car was destroyed, and NASCAR had to move the Victory Lane celebration to the front straightaway.

Eighteen drivers qualified for the All-Star Race.  David Ragan and Brad Keselowski raced their way into the All-Star Race by finishing first and second respectively in the Sprint Showdown.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. got into the All-Star Race by winning the fan vote.

NASCAR: Talladega Results

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeNSCS:  Amp Energy Juice 500

It took a few minutes but NASCAR finally decided that Clint Bowyer was the winner of Sunday's Amp Energy 500 at Talladega.  After a review of the videos and loop data, they determined that Bowyer was just ahead of his RCR teammate Kevin Harvick when the race ended under caution.

Bowyer was in the inside lane being pushed by Juan Montoya.  Harvick was on the outside with David Reutimann glued to his back bumper.  As they came to the stripe to take the white flag, Harvick was inches ahead, but a few seconds later, when the caution came out and the field was frozen, Bowyer was just ahead of Harvick.

It was Bowyer's fourth career win, his first at a restrictor-plate race, and his second of the Chase.  Montoya finished third, followed by Reutimann and Joey Logano.  (Race results)

Bowyer and Harvick almost weren't there at the end.  On Lap 141 (of 188) Bowyer got into the rear of Marcos Ambrose in Turn Two, turning him in front of Harvick.  Both RCR cars suffered front-end damage, but were able to continue.  Harvick made a lengthy pit stop to put tape on the nose of his car.

The race was tame by Talladega standards.  There were just five cautions, and one of those was for debris.  The only accident that would come close to being a "Big One" was the wreck that brought out the final caution and ended the race a couple of miles too soon.  A. J. Allmendinger got the worst of that one.  He spun, flipped up on his side, and slammed hard (still on his side) into the inside wall.  Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Scott Speed, and David Gilliland were also involved.

On Lap 134, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who led a race-high 24 laps, tried an ill-timed bump draft on Jeff Burton.  The contact put Burton into the wall, where he collected Earnhardt, finishing both of their days.

Kyle Busch pushed his JGR teammate Denny Hamlin to the front and was in position to win, but got shuffled back at the end of the race and finished 25th.  All of the Roush Fenway Chasers -- Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, and Greg Biffle -- suffered the same fate.  They finished 16th, 17th, and 19th respectively.

Denny Hamlin's day almost became a disaster to ruin his championship hopes.  On Lap 77, while cruising around in the back of the field to stay out of trouble, he lost contact with the pack and fell out of the draft.  Running by himself, he fell behind quickly at the rate of about four seconds per lap and was eventually lapped on Lap 105.  Once he got back in the main pack, he was able to stay up near the front, and eventually got his lap back during the caution for the Bowyer-Harvick-Ambrose incident on Lap 141.

It was a three-man race for the championship coming into this race, and it's an even tighter three-man race now.  In fact, this is the closest race between the top three contenders with three races to go since the Chase format started.  Jimmie Johnson, who finished seventh, increased his lead over Denny Hamlin, who finished ninth, from six to 14 points, but Harvick is now just 38 points behind Johnson.   Jeff Gordon, who finished eighth, jumped back ahead of Kyle Busch to fourth in the standings, but he's 207 points out.  (Points standings)



NCWTS:  Mountain Dew 250

Kyle Busch beat Aric Almirola to the line to gain a controversial win in Saturday's Mountain Dew 500 at Talladega.  Busch's margin of victory was 0.002 seconds, the closest in Camping World Truck Series history and tying Ricky Craven's win over Kurt Busch in a Cup race at Darlington in 2003 for the closest win in the three national series since the introduction of electronic timing in 1993.

Johnny Sauter finished third, followed by Matt Crafton and Ricky Carmichael.  (Race results)

They came out of the final turn in a single-file line with Busch seemingly ready to just push Almirola to the victory, but Sauter went low and Busch went down to block.  Sauter gave Busch a push, then moved up high and the three crossed the line side-by-side-by-side.  That final push from Sauter got Busch out of shape and his left tires went below the yellow line, out of bounds, as he struggled to keep control.  That had Almirola's team complaining that Busch should have been disqualified.  NASCAR let it slide.

It was Busch's sixth Truck Series win of the season, his second at Talladega, and the 22nd of his career.

The Big One came on Lap 91.  Grant Enfinger bumped series-leader Todd Bodine, turning him and triggering a wild wreck that saw Ron Hornaday's truck flip several times before coming to rest on its roof.   Bodine finished 18th and took a big hit in the points standings, but still has a comfortable 216-point lead over Almirola with just three races remaining.