Kyle Busch came into Friday night's Dollar General 300 Nationwide Series race at Lowe's Motor Speedway on a losing streak of sorts. Granted he's the series points leader, but he headed into Friday's event with 0 wins in the last 11 races. Many drivers would be happy with a single win every 11 races or so, but for Busch in Nationwide competition, 11 races without a win is considered a dry spell.
Busch led 137 laps of the 200-lap race on his way to his fifth Nationwide Series win at Lowe's Motor Speedway. It was also his third-consecutive at the track.
According to Busch, Jimmie Johnson may be able to claim that he's the man at Lowe's when it comes to Sprint Cup racing, but "this is my house on the Nationwide side," he said.
After losing a rather large chunk of his points lead with a DNF last weekend, Busch regained a little of that cushion and now leads second-place Carl Edwards by 195 points.
After starting on the pole, Edwards minimized the damage by posting at top-five with a fifth-place finish.
Busch wasn't the only driver who broke a streak on Friday night, so did Brad Keselowski; however, Keselowski's streak was one he didn't want to see end.
Keselowski came into Friday night's event riding a wave of eight-consecutive top-five finishes. The string was broken in the Dollar General 300, but just barely. He finished right outside the top-five in the sixth-position.
Meanwhile, Mike Bliss, who won the Nationwide Series' last race at Lowe's Motor Speedway back in May, finished in the runner-up position. Bliss is on a mission to finish in the top-10 in the points standings, despite piloting about half a dozen or so different cars this year. He helped his cause Friday night, moving up the the seventh-spot.
Running a home race of sorts, with Lowe's Motor Speedway being practically in the backyard of most NASCAR teams, Braun Racing brought four cars of the track -- fielding cars for its regular driver, Jason Leffler, in addition to Brian Vickers, Reed Sorenson, and Dave Blaney. The team saw half of its cars cars post top-five finishes with Blaney claiming third and Vickers fourth.
Rookie Justin Allgaier and Steve Wallace headed to Lowe's in a heated battle for the fifth-position in the points standings. After swapping fifth three of the last four weeks, Allgaier pulled away somewhat after Wallace was involved in an early-race incident with David Gilliland and wound up 31st.
"I got wrecked by a washed-up Cup driver, I guess," Wallace said.
Allgaier finished the race 12th and now has a 109-point cushion on Wallace. Now Wallace must concern himself with losing the sixth-position. Bliss, in seventh, is only nine points behind Wallace.
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