LEFFLER LOSES TOP THREE DARLINGTON FINISH TO LACK OF FUEL; KYLE BUSCH LOSES CHANCE AT VICTORY TO LAPPED CAR WOES

It was a night of almosts for the two Braun Racing entries in Friday night’s Diamond Hill Plywood 200, NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the famed Darlington Raceway in Darlington, SC.

First, win contender Kyle Busch, the hottest driver in all of NASCAR during the first third of the 2008 season, lost a chance at a fourth triumph in the Nationwide Series when he was pinched by a lapped car and crashed out of the event while running tenth with just 45 laps to go in the #32 Beringer Vineyards/ABF Freight/Dollar General/Northeastern Supply Company Toyota.

Jason Leffler, meanwhile, ran a steady race all night and was running in the third position with only three laps remaining when he was forced to pit for a splash of fuel when his motor began to sputter and a second place finish staring him in the eye in his #38 Great Clips/Dollar General/Northeastern Supply Company Toyota Camry.

Busch qualified fifth in the race and ran near the front almost the entire race – challenging eventual race winner Tony Stewart and other contenders such as Stremme and Mark Martin for the top positions. Pit stops moved Busch’s car back in the pack on several occasions, but each time he would rally and move his machine back into contention.

With the final laps winding down, and a top ten finish at the very worst in site, Busch passed the Ford driven by David Ragan in some three abreast racing at the entrance to turn three. When he tried to do the same thing to the Chevrolet of Brad Keselowski, the latter squeezed Busch’s Toyota down the track and partly on the apron to ignite the wreck that put Busch out of the race for keeps.

With just 10 laps remaining and Leffler in third, the Ford driven by David Ragan spun and made contact with the second turn wall of the fabled, 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval to bring out the caution flag. The race was re-started some seven laps later when the Chevrolet driven by Martin was unable to go at the start-finish line. Leffler’s car was right behind Martin’s at the time and had no place to go, tapping Martin’s car in the left rear to spin him out and to precipitate an incident that involved no less than seven cars.

The race was eventually halted for track cleaning operations for several minutes and thus set the stage for a green-white-checker finish. Leffler’s Toyota, then second on the scoreboard, was forced to pit when the red flag was lifted and the cars rolled off the back stretch under the yellow flag for fear that the car would eventually run out of gas before the checkered flag was to wave.

The move put the #38 back in the 10th position when the green flag finally waved with just the last three laps remaining. Leffler was able to get by just a single car over these final laps to thus settle for a good but disappointing 9th place finish.

“We had a fast race car, and we were lucky to stay out of trouble to be in a position to win this race,” Leffler said. “I thought that we were running out of gas on two, late-race re-starts, but when we re-started the race after that last caution and red flag, we really had no alternative but to pit for a splash of fuel or risk suffering the same fate that affected Mark (Martin).

Essentially, Jason would have been run over by the cars behind him if he indeed ran out of fuel too, so crew chief Paul Wolfe elected to bring the #38 car down pit road for a quick fuel stop and to avoid more serious problems.

Jason, who remained eighth in the championship driver point’s standing – 264 behind point leader Carl Edwards, now has five top 10 finishes over the first 12 races of the 2008 season.

Stewart went on to claim the victory with Clint Bowyer, David Reutimann, Todd Bodine and Steven Wallace rounding out the top five finishers. Bowyer also maintained his championship point lead over Busch who was credited with a tough-to-take, 31st place finish and now trails Bowyer by 112 points.

The Nationwide Series cars and teams are off for the next week, resuming action on Saturday, May 24 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte with the running of the Carquest Auto Parts 300. Race time is set for 7:30 p.m. and with ESPN2 televising the race live to the nation.