Busch beats Logano for victory at New Hampshire

LOUDON, N.H. -- Apparently tired of his recent pattern of leading the most laps and finishing somewhere other than first, Kyle Busch took a different tack in Saturday's Camping World RV Sales 200.

Busch saved his surge to the front for the final green-flag run in the Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. After passing Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano for the lead on Lap 165 of 200, Busch stayed in front the rest of the way.

Results

Camping World RV 200

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
2.	Joey Logano	Toyota
3.	Brad Keselowski	Chevrolet
4.	Mike Bliss	Chevrolet
5.	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet
6.	Carl Edwards	Ford
7.	Greg Biffle	Ford
8.	Scott Speed	Toyota
9.	Erik Darnell	Ford
10.	Jason Leffler	Toyota

• Results | Videos | Photos

"We just kept adjusting on our car all day," said Busch, who had led the most laps in the past eight Nationwide races while winning only two of them. "Normally, when we're out front, we don't adjust on it. [Saturday] we didn't have the winning car, we made the winning car.

"Jason [Ratcliff, crew chief] and myself, we talked this past week about what we need in order to get better, in order to take this team to Victory Lane instead of finishing second week in and week out. This is a good step in the right direction."

In the final 10 laps, Logano closed up to the rear bumper of Busch's No. 18 Toyota in lapped traffic, but Busch eventually pulled away to win his fifth race of the season by .617 seconds over his teammate (watch video).

Brad Keselowski finished third at the Magic Mile, followed by Mike Bliss, who stayed out on old tires during the third and final caution and led the field to a restart on Lap 162. Kevin Harvick came home fifth in his own No. 33 Chevrolet.

Busch collected his 26th career victory in the series, fifth-best of all time and one behind fourth place Jeff Burton (watch video). In posting his 13th top-10 in 16 starts this season, Busch extended his lead over sixth-place finisher Carl Edwards to 162 points in the series standings.

Though Busch talked with Ratcliff about being patient and taking his time during the first 51-lap green-flag run, he said his methodical approach was a matter of necessity, not choice.

"I wanted to be [up front] -- I just couldn't get there," said Busch, who started from the ninth position and became the 23rd different winner in 23 series races at New Hampshire. "These flat tracks, you just can't do stuff like that. You don't have the room to do stuff like that.

"Texas, Charlotte, Atlanta -- all those big tracks -- Kansas, Chicago, you've got room. You can go way up to the wall and run around the outside and pass guys, and you've got the whole race track to use. Here, Milwaukee, Phoenix, you've got one, one-and-a-half lanes to use in order to get through guys and make it up toward the front. So you've got to be methodical about it, think about it and try not to get into anybody."

Logano, on the other hand, got a taste of the frustration that has haunted Busch, who had led 1,486 of the 2,787 laps he had completed in the first 15 races this season.

"I guess this is how Kyle feels lately -- leading the most laps and not winning," said Logano, who led a race-high 108 laps.

Logano said the handling on his car changed too much during the final run and it slowed him down enough for Busch to move ahead.

"We had a pretty good car [Saturday]," he said. "Just not good enough. It's not like he beat us by a lot. [We were] just too tight at the end.

Edwards challenged Logano in the early going, leading 51 laps. But his crew had problems changing the right-front tire on a pit stop just past halfway and he fell out of contention, finishing sixth. That left Edwards 162 points behind Busch in the championship after 16 of 25 races. Logano is fifth (watch video).

Sprint Cup teammates Scott Speed and Brian Vickers -- driving cars for different Nationwide owners -- tangled in Turn 3 on the final lap and lost chances for top-five finishes (watch video). As the cars entered pit road following the race, Vickers [who came home 12th] bumped his Red Bull Racing teammate [who ran eighth].

Speed explained that he had carried more speed than the cars ahead of him into the final set of corners.

"He said I slowed down going into the corner," Vickers said. "No [kidding]!"

The Associated Press contributed to this report.