With 12 laps to go it looked like Kyle Busch was a shoo in for the Nationwide  race win today at Dover. He was a rocket on the restarts, no one could catch him. That is until the final restart with 3 laps to go.

Busch was leading and knowing what a great car he had on those restarts, everyone was pretty confident that he would run away with the win. However, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski were not prepared to let that happen. Logano was right up on his rear bumper, practically underneath him which gave Keselowski the room he needed to take the lead on the bottom. Logano went high and they left Busch in the dust.

It seems Busch had a tire issue that caused him to loose quite a few spots on the last couple of laps. Similar issues plagued many of the drivers throughout the races.

Busch finished a disappointing 17th after leading the most laps. Logano came in second followed by Clint Bowyer, Brian Vickers, and Carl Edwards. This was the first win of the year for Brad Keselowski.

I’m personally a huge fan of night racing. Especially short track night racing. I have got to say, they are some of the best, most exciting, and fun races of the season. Tonight’s race was stupid on a lot of accounts and yet fun to watch. There were a lot of nail biting moments and white knuckle near misses. First of all, the yellow came out inside of ten laps. Could this be blamed on the track not being totally dry? Possibly. The race did begin under caution, not something I was particularly happy with. Dave Blaney smacked the wall on lap 9 bringing out the second caution.

There were a lot of lead changes, I am not sure how many but it was enough to get annoying. Jeff Gordon led a few laps though, pulling away from the field early on. I have to admit that even though I am not a Jeff Gordon fan at all, it was nice that he led some laps in spite of his back pain. Sadly on lap 114, the caution flag came out again as Jeremy Mayfield slams into the wall. Lap 150, Kahne gets around but is otherwise unharmed.

Speaking of Kahne though, what happened to him?? In 2006 he was practically unbeatable and suddenly he has become nothing more than a field filler. When was the last time he really contended for a race win and wasn’t just another lapped car to pass?

A couple of surprising things happened tonight. Jimmie Johnson had a really really bad night. Seriously after 3 consecutive championships, you’d think the 48 time would have things figured out by now. He sits 6th in the standings but his performance has been less than consistent. At any rate, he spins out on lap 191 bringing out caution number 6. On the restart, he is two laps down and ends up being black flagged for restarting in the wrong position.

The second most surprising thing was Mark Martin’s performance tonight. On lap 312, Newman gets into Mark and spins him out, bringing out the 12th caution of the night, and yet Martin still manages to get a top 5 finish. That ought to show you there is still a lot of giddy up in the old man.

David Stremme, who’d been having a top 10 night, gets into the wall after being bumped by Bobby Labonte. That might have been the first time all evening anyone even mentioned Bobby’s name.

Carl Edwards and Jamie McMurray both got spun out on lap 167 but somehow, both men manage to find their way back into the top 5. Jamie ends up with a solid 7th place finish but Edwards somehow gets shuffled back to 26th.

And how about those SHR boys? All evening, Tony Stewart had been little better than a mid-pack car, but he drove the wheels off that number 14 and landed himself his 7th top 10 and his 4th top 5 in only 10 races this season. Stewart’s teammate, Ryan Newman landed his second top 5 in a row and his 4th top 10 finish. Newman, who had a really rough beginning to the season with no finishes inside of the top 20 in the first four races, seems to have come into his own and is posting some solid finishes. The last two have been enough to take him from the outside looking in, to the top 12 in points. Although they are listed as unofficial, Newman currently stands at 10th and Tony Stewart picked up yet another place in points and sits in 3rd, just 39 points outside of 1st. Is 39 Tony’s lucky number?

Kyle Busch wins the race. Tony Stewart, Jeff Burton, Ryan Newman, Mark Martin, Sam Hornish Jr., Jamie McMurray, Jeff Gordon, Casey Mears, and Juan Pablo Montoya round out the top 10 for the Crown Royal Presents the Russ Friedman 400 at Richmond.

Alright. I know you guys have gotten used to me and my funny posts (at least I think they’re funny) but I want to get serious here for a few.

I’m sure most, if not all, of my readers know that I am pretty much anti-Kyle Busch and anti-Jimmie Johnson. For the record, yes I do have a mad crush on Jimmie but his arrogance makes me angry.

In the past I’ve been accused of hating these guys because…they win too much? Now I am sorry but that is just ridiculous! For one thing, how can anyone hate someone that wins a lot? Also, how can anyone win too much? Sure, it gets old seeing the same face up in Victory Lane each week but that is negligible to me. For the most part. What bothers me is ungracious winners and sore losers!

A lot of people have been saying that Kyle’s matured this year since he’s been with Gibbs but I beg to differ. Did anyone happen to watch the Nationwide series opener at Daytona?

If you didn’t or if you did and don’t remember, here’s a recap.

Sure, I could be biased here but lets review shall we?

Tony raced him hard. He raced Kyle the way he should race him in the Cup series, but doesn’t. Needless to say, Kyle didn’t seem at all happy with the way Tony raced him that day but you know what? I doubt he’d have treated Tony any differently. That’s how it goes guys.

The worst part about this was, after a nice top five finish (Kyle got 4th), he pitched a fit, left his car parked in the grass and took off! Seriously, how old are you again?

And how about this one?

I don’t think I really need to elaborate on that one, Kyle Busch did everything in his power to make himself look like a royal dunce. Um. Hello? This is BRISTOL, Kyle. That’s how everyone races.

And there, my friends, I have presented you with two valid reasons to not like Kyle Busch.

As for winning too much? Hmm…lets look at stats:

Kyle Busch in 2008: 8 wins. I hate him

Carl Edwards in 2008: 9 wins. I don’t hate him. And no I don’t like Carl more because of what he did to Kyle at Bristol. I’m not much of a Carl fan at all, I just don’t hate him. I’m pretty much neutral to him (well unless he’s in a sleeveless shirt and I can see his sexy, sexy arms).

Jimmie Johnson. Well there’s a lot of things I haven’t forgiven this guy for but winning 3 championships in a row is hardly something to be upset over. I think this guy has to be one of the most ungracious winners I have ever seen. Its one thing to celebrate, its another to say “this is for all the haters”. And the day he said that is the day I became a hater.

I always say this, there’s only one thing worse than a sore loser- an ungracious winner!