NASCAR: Busch wins Nationwide race

AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Kyle Busch became the first driver in a national NASCAR race to win wire-to-wire in nearly eight years.

It wasn't as easy as it looked, not with his car getting loose and Carl Edwards bearing down over the final few laps.

Busch dominated from the pole early and held off Edwards late, maintaining the lead the entire way in the Nationwide race Saturday to set up the chance for a perfect weekend at Phoenix International Raceway.

"It came down to the end of the race and Carl was alongside of me and we were racing really hard trying to beat each other, and I was like, 'Man, just beat him back to the start-finish line, man, just beat back to the start-finish line,"' Busch said. "I was just trying to hold on for as long as I could."

The Nationwide opener last weekend was a nail-biter, with Tony Stewart nipping Clint Bowyer by .007 seconds for the series' closest finish ever at Daytona. Busch had race No. 2 looking like a walkover until Edwards pulled beside him three times in the final 20 laps.

Busch never let him get around, though, fighting a car that had lost some handling after the final pit stop to lead all 200 laps around Phoenix's bumpy mile oval. He's the first green-to-checkers winner in any NASCAR series national race since Dale Earnhardt Jr. did it during a Nationwide race at Daytona in 2003.

The trucks winner Friday night, Busch can make it three straight in today's's 500-mile Sprint Cup race, where he'll start fourth.

Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman and Reed Sorenson followed Edwards in the top five on Saturday.

"We made a run," Edwards said. "I did everything but move him out of the way and I thought about that, but he did a great job. Those guys did well. He drove that car. It was loose and he did a good job of hanging onto it."

Busch won the trucks race in a dominating performance and was fast in his Nationwide car, too, setting a track record of 134.298 mph to secure the pole.

Of course, records have been falling everywhere this weekend.

Bowyer set the trucks qualifying record on Friday and Edwards qualified on the pole for today's's Sprint Cup race with a track-record speed, one of 15 drivers to eclipse the record he set on the way to winning at Phoenix last fall.

The weather changed for the Nationwide race, as wind from an incoming storm whipped flags atop the grandstands and wobbled pit signs like giant fishing poles with a marlin on the end.

None of it slowed Busch down.

He pulled away from Edwards from the opening green flag and did the same on a couple of restarts, lapping more than half the field by the race's midpoint. Edwards was the only driver who could stay in Busch's mirror, lingering a few seconds back while the rest of the field was 10 or more on green-flag racing for the last 60 laps or so. He was close to Busch after a restart with about 30 laps left and pulled beside him three times in about a 10-lap span, but could never make the pass.

Despite a final pit adjustment that made his car hard to handle, Busch kept a few car lengths ahead after that to win for the fourth time in 12 Nationwide starts at Phoenix.

"Their car was lasting longer, staying closer to us through the longer run, so I felt like if we got complacent and didn't work on our car, exactly what happened was going to happen," said Jason Ratcliff, Busch's crew chief. "It is tough because you're so concerned about am I going to take a really good race car and mess it up. At the same time, you'd rather lose because you swung for the fence than lose because you sat back and didn't do anything."

Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne had a solid day going before being bitten by a blown tire.