Busch wins; JGR takes owner’s title

— Kyle Busch kept his perfect weekend alive by winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday - a victory that gave Joe Gibbs Racing the owner’s championship.

It was Busch’s 13th victory of the Nationwide season and career victory No. 43 in that series, second only to 48 by Batesville’s Mark Martin. It came on the heels of Friday night’s victory in the Camping World Truck Series, which also gave Busch the owner’s championship in that series.

Busch headed into today’s Sprint Cup finale looking for a weekend sweep - he won three races in NASCAR’s three national series at Bristol in August - but he was thinking about the big picture instead of his personal accomplishments. JGR teammate DennyHamlin can win his first Cup title in today’s season finale.

“Wish I had something for tomorrow,” Busch told his team as he crossed the finish line, “but we’ll play the teammate and get them one.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who began his career racing sprint cars at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis and Little Rock’s I-30 Speedway, finished fourth to wrap up Rookie of the Year honors in the Nationwide Series. Trevor Bayne rounded out the top five.

Danica Patrick finished her final NASCAR race of the season with a career-best finish of 19th, but was extremely frustrated after the race because she’d struggled to get around Brian Scott in the closing laps.

Sports, Pages 27 on 11/21/2010

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