Kyle Busch rolls in Nationwide

MADISON, Ill. — Kyle Busch continued his domination of the NASCAR Nationwide Series by sailing to victory in the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 on Saturday night.

Busch, who leads the point standings, won for the sixth time in 19 races this season and also captured the 27th Nationwide win of his career. Reed Sorenson finished second and Carl Edwards third. Mike Bliss and Brad Coleman rounded out the top five.

Busch, who started from the fifth row, has finished first or second in the past seven Nationwide races, with four victories.

“The car drove really well,” Busch said. “It was like a rocket ship. We just drove right up to the front.”

Driving a Toyota, Busch was one of four full-time Sprint Cup drivers competing in the event, with NASCAR’S top series taking the weekend off. Edwards, Sorenson and Kevin Harvick also race regularly on the Sprint Series.

The win was the first for Busch in three career starts at the 1.25-mile oval.

Busch took over the lead on lap 172 of the 200-lap event when Harvick ran out of gas. Busch finished 1.001 seconds ahead of Sorenson and leads Edwards by 212 points in the standings.

Harvick, who finished 17th, led 92 of the first 150 laps, but made a mistake in calculating his fuel down the stretch. Busch thought he had the best car and would have passed Harvick even if Harvick had not run out of gas.

“That was a bummer for him,” Busch said of Harvick’s bad break. “But we had a little bit better car at that point in the race.”

• CAMPING WORLD TRUCKS — At Sparta, Ky., Ron Hornaday held off a late surge from Mike Skinner to win the NASCAR Camping World Truck race at Kentucky Speed way, the third consecutive victory for the series points leader.

Hornaday became the first two-time winner in the 10-year history of the Built Ford Tough 225 at the 11/2-mile northern Kentucky track. He also started from the pole, becoming the first driver to win at Kentucky after starting from the front row.

• NHRA — At Kent, Wash., Tony Pedregon capped an impressive two days of qualifying with a 4.174-second pass at a top speed of 291.13 mph at the NHRA Northwest Nationals to gain his third No. 1 of the season in Funny Car.

Pedregon, third in points behind Ron Capps and Ashley Force Hood, was the overnight leader, and he improved on a 4.182 from Friday with the 4.174 in the first session Saturday.

The other top qualifiers for today’s eliminations were Larry Dixon (Top Fuel) and Allen Johnson (Pro Stock).