Busch Dominates Camping World Truck Series Race At Fontana

 

Kyle Busch didn’t need any last-lap heroics this time. The NASCAR star simply stayed out front in Saturday’s truck race.

Busch led 95 of 100 laps in capturing his second straight win on the 2-mile Auto Club Speedway oval. It was his 10th series victory.

Last week at Daytona, Busch failed to make late-race passes pay off at the Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide races, but there was nothing to be disappointed about Saturday.

“It was just flawless,” Busch said of his Toyota truck. “This one’s for Doug George. It’s his first win as crew chief. It’s a lot of these guys first win, as a matter of fact.”

Busch, scheduled to race again later Saturday in the Nationwide race, finished second to Todd Bodine in the Daytona truck race after trying unsuccessfully to bump his way past the leader on the final lap. He tried the same move on Tony Stewart in the Nationwide event, and wound up fourth after Stewart fended off the move and broke Busch’s momentum.

But the 23-year-old Busch, who had 21 overall victories last year—three in trucks, 10 in Nationwide and eight in Cup—was just too strong at the Southern California track.

Bodine stayed with him for a while, but eventually slipped out of contention, finishing more than 9 seconds—more than the distance of the front straightaway—behind.

“It’s a little disappointing to have a Tundra that’s that good and finish second,” Bodine said. “That tells you how good Kyle was.

“As the tires got hot and slick, he just was able to get through the corners a little better, and that was probably the difference,” added Bodine, who had won two straight races, including last year’s finale at Homestead.

The former series champion, driving for Germain Racing, is going race-to-race without sponsorship.

“I guess we’ll be going to Atlanta (for the next race),” he said. “Hopefully, somebody’s out there watching, paying attention. A first and a second so far, that’s pretty good.”

Chad McCumbee finished second, followed by David Starr, T.J. Bell, Ron Hornaday Jr., Matt Crafton and former bike racing star Ricky Carmichael, the top finishing rookie.

Defending series champion Johnny Benson was never in contention and finished 12th.

  2009 San Bernardino County 200 Final Results

Finish	Start	Truck #	Driver	Make	Lap	Points
1	1	51	Kyle Busch	Toyota	100	195
2	7	30	Todd Bodine	Toyota	100	170
3	12	07	Chad McCumbee	Chevrolet	100	170
4	19	24	David Starr	Toyota	100	160
5	21	11	T J Bell	Toyota	100	155
6	4	33	Ron Hornaday	Chevrolet	100	150
7	8	88	Matt Crafton	Chevrolet	100	146
8	3	4	Ricky Carmichael	Chevrolet	100	142
9	20	17	Timothy Peters	Toyota	100	138
10	10	9	Max Papis	Toyota	100	134
11	5	5	Mike Skinner	Toyota	100	130
12	2	1	Johnny Benson	Toyota	100	127
13	16	10	James Buescher	Ford	100	124
14	9	14	Rick Crawford	Ford	99	121
15	17	60	Stacy Compton	Toyota	99	118
16	25	15	Shane Sieg	Toyota	99	115
17	18	13	Johnny Sauter	Chevrolet	99	112
18	14	40	Mike Bliss	Chevrolet	99	109
19	23	90	Gabi Dicarlo	Toyota	99	106
20	6	6	Colin Braun	Ford	99	108
21	31	61	Brett Thompson	Dodge	98	100
22	22	7	J R Fitzpatrick	Chevrolet	98	97
23	24	32	Chase Austin	Chevrolet	97	94
24	11	81	Tayler Malsam	Toyota	97	91
25	15	25	Terry Cook	Toyota	91	88
26	27	48	Dennis Setzer	Chevrolet	40	85
27	29	23	Jason White	Dodge	34	82
28	36	57	Norm Benning	Chevrolet	31	79
29	13	16	Brian Scott	Toyota	26	76
30	32	21	Marc Mitchell	Dodge	20	73
31	33	08	Butch Miller	Chevrolet	13	70
32	35	47	Brandon Knupp	Chevrolet	10	67
33	28	06	Johnny Chapman	Toyota	9	64
34	34	22	Wayne Edwards	Dodge	6	61
35	26	77	J C Stout	Toyota	4	58
36	30	44	Lance Hooper	Chevrolet	2	55

Average Speed: 145.821 MPH
Time of Race: 01 Hrs, 22 Mins, 23 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 9.023 Seconds

Lead Changes: 4 among 3 drivers Cautions: 2 for 8 laps
Attendance: 10,000