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Phoenix II: Kyle Busch race report

AVONDALE, Ariz. (November 14, 2009) - In a span of one race, Kyle Busch spun out, regrouped and scored a top-10 finish in the penultimate race of the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series season, and all but locked up this season's Nationwide Series ...

AVONDALE, Ariz. (November 14, 2009) - In a span of one race, Kyle Busch spun out, regrouped and scored a top-10 finish in the penultimate race of the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series season, and all but locked up this season's Nationwide Series championship - his first career title in the NASCAR ranks.

Busch will be the series champion with a mere flick of the ignition switch next weekend at Homestead- Miami Speedway.

Throughout Friday's practice sessions at Phoenix International Raceway, Busch never found a comfortable feel for his NOS Energy Drink Toyota Camry, but he managed to secure a starting spot within the first two rows. Busch himself brought out the first caution of the day, getting loose in turn two, spinning and hitting the wall, and collecting Clint Bowyer. The NOS crew was able to fix the damaged left front fender after consecutive pit stops, giving Busch a fighting chance to continue competing for the remainder of the day.

And fight he did. Busch never lost a lap en route to securing a ninth-place finish in the Able Body Labor 200. It was Busch's 29th top-10 finish of 2009.

Busch now leads Carl Edwards - Saturday's winner - by 190 points. All Busch has to do is start next weekend's race to clinch the championship.

CREW CHIEF JASON RATCLIFF

What happened early in the race to put you guys behind?

"We felt pretty good about our car yesterday in happy hour and didn't make a lot of changes to it this morning. We just didn't start off right there. He (Kyle Busch) wasn't happy with it and then I'm not sure what happened. We spun out there on our own and the 29 (Clint Bowyer) ran into us a little bit or we collected the wall, whatever happened. From that point on we were just trying to survive. The guys did a good job on pit road. We just fell a little bit short of clinching it. I think all we have to do is start next week and we'll be the champions for 2009. We're happy about that, we wish we would have had a better run today at Phoenix. Clinching the title today would have been great. But, of course it would have been great to do it last week. It just wasn't meant to be today. All we have to do is start next week and we should have it."

-credit: jgr

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