Busch survives wild one: The Royal Purple 200 Review

Another Nationwide race, another round of failed expectations. It was another race where it looked like a Nationwide driver could win it, but it was for naught. Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch led all but 36 laps.

The good news was that Justin Allgaier and Elliott Sadler both took turns at the top. The race was highlighted by a wreck on lap 96 that took out some good race cars. Clint Bowyer decided to press the issue on Aric Almirola, taking it three wide before tapping Almirola. Aric would turn back into the field and set off a bad wreck that saw Brian Scott going headfirst into the SAFER Barrier.

Everyone was okay, but a Cup guy ended the day of two championship contenders, Brian Scott and Aric Almirola, as well as ending the adventure of Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski. Edwards would finish the race, but the wreck put him a few laps down and unable to contend.

With 30 laps to go it looked like Elliott Sadler would pull off the coup, but Kyle Busch ran him down and passed him on lap 124. Busch would win, with Denny Hamlin taking second. The next three were Nationwide Regulars.
Results and Points after the jump!

All I have to do is look at how the results would look without Busch and Hamlin up top to see how the Nationwide Series could be. The Championship points took a very different look this week. Justin Allgaier remained up top, but he has some new contenders to deal with. Here’s the fight:

Just when it looked like Joe Gibbs would run away with it, we see the #33 team keeping pace with Gibbs. Kevin Harvick’s team just needs a few wins to put them up top. Here’s the slugfest:

Eric McClure’s horrible run has caused him to fall outside the top 30 in Owner Points. Thanks to Scott Riggs, the #23 team is back locked in. Here’s the battle:

So that’s all we have for this week. Next weekend we return to Saturday afternoon racing from Dover! Enjoy!