BUSCH PUTS NORTHEASTERN SUPPLY COMPANY INTO VICTORY LANE WITH STIRRING LATE-RACE FINISH AT LOWE’S MOTOR SPEEDWAY

The Northeastern Supply Company returned to Victory Lane for the first time in five NASCAR Nationwide Series seasons Saturday night when red-hot Kyle Busch drove to victory in the Car Quest Auto Parts 300 at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte.

Not since Jason Keller won at New Hampshire International Speedway in 2003 had a Northeastern Supply Company-sponsored race car won a race, but backing the 3-car effort of Braun Racing in 2008, the win by Busch, his fourth in the Series this season and ninth overall in NASCAR competition, is probably not going to be the last.

Busch, who leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings and has been dominating action in all three of NASCAR’s premier touring circuits, had to come from well back in the field to win in his #32 Dollar General/Northeastern Supply Company.

Busch, who led the most laps during the race, was in front on lap 112 when the Dodge of rookie driver Bryan Clauson crashed in turn two to bring out one of the race’s 11 yellow flags. All of the leaders pitted but jack problems cost Busch and his Toyota Camry seven spots on the track when everyone completed their stops.

With fuel status an issue with several of the front-running cars, Busch’s crew chief, Todd Lohse, decided to pit with 69 laps remaining during another caution period to top off his driver’s fuel tank, pushing Busch way back to the 19th position when the race re-started but taking a gamble that in the end proved decisive.

Busch steadily moved his Camry through traffic and had moved back into the top 10 with 41 laps remaining when the cars driven by Kasey Kahne and Kelly Bires came together in the fourth turn to again bring out the yellow flag.

Most of the leaders used that opportunity to pit for a final time for fuel and tires. Busch, however, was ordered to stay on the track and regained the lead, a position he was able to maintain through the remainder of the event despite the concern for fuel availability. Several more caution periods occurred over those final laps to finally put Busch’s car into the safe zone as far as fuel was concerned and he was able to withstand a late-race charge by his Sprint Cup teammate Denny Hamlin, and the Chevy’s driven by third place finisher Brian Keselowki and fourth place Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to earn the victory.

“I had a great race car tonight and Todd (crew chief Lohse) made the right calls. It feels really great to put Braun Racing back into Victory Lane for the first time this season,” Busch said after the race.

Had Busch not been the Braun Racing driver and team to finally get into Victory Lane, his other two teammates certainly had cars good enough to get the job done at LMS.

Brian Vickers, driving the #10 ABF U-Pack Moving/Dollar General/Northeastern Supply Company Toyota, qualified on the pole and also led the race for a bunch of laps in running to a fifth place finish.

Jason Leffler, who started the race in the fifth position, also led the race for several laps and ran in the top of the field through much of the first half of the race until a cut right front tire forced him to pit his #38 Great Clips/Dollar General/Northeastern Supply Company Toyota under green for a tire change on lap 87.

Leffler lost a lap in the exchange but was able to eventually get his lap back with 70 laps remaining in the 202-lap, green/white/checker finishing affair. Jason had driven up into the 13th spot on the leader board with 28 laps to go and with a better-than-even chance at scoring another top-ten finish only to be the reason for the race’s ninth caution three laps later.

That is when the Chevrolet driven by Steven Wallace got loose in a 3-wide run through the turn 2 corner with Leffler’s car in the middle and Wallace’s at the bottom. Wallace’s machine jumped up the track and clipped Leffler’s in the left rear quarter panel, sending Jason’s #38 spinning and hard into the outside retaining wall to end his night 27 laps short of the finish. Despite having what Leffler claimed before the race was the best Braun Racing car he had driven this season, he was credited with a tough-to-take, 32nd place finish with only his second DNF of the year and first since Las Vegas 10 races ago.

“We had a great race car, and I know we would have been a factor at the end had we not had those problems,” said Leffler, who despite the disappointing finish was still able to hold onto the eighth position in the championship driver point standings. However, Leffler fell further back in points to leader Clint Bowyer (a sixth place finisher Saturday night) and trails by 338 heading into next Saturday afternoon’s race at Dover International Speedway in Delaware – Northeastern Supply Company’s home track.

The Heluva Good! 200 is scheduled to get the green flag at 3 p.m. with ESPN2 to televise the race nationally and Northeastern Supply will sport additional sponsorship display space on Leffler’s Toyota for this event in hopes of helping Leffler secure his first victory of the 2008 campaign.