Busch wins California truck race

Saturday, Oct. 28, 2000 | 4:52 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. Reach him at 259-4089 or by e-mail at bh@lasvegassun.com.

FONTANA, Calif. -- Kurt Busch put an exclamation point on his extraordinary rookie season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series by winning Saturday's Motorola 200 at California Speedway.

It was the fourth victory of the season -- a NCTS rookie record -- for the 22-year-old Las Vegas native and marked the third time this year he has won a race from the pole position.

Busch, the NCTS Rookie of the Year, grabbed the lead for good with 15 laps remaining after his Exide Batteries crew got him out of the pits first during the final caution period of the race.

Busch was able to extend his lead to more than 10 truck lengths in the closing laps -- a margin that would prove instrumental on the final lap. Busch got into some oil on the track between turns 1 and 2 and got sideways before he was able to regain control of his truck.

Busch was able to hold off a charging Andy Houston by a margin of .775 seconds in the fastest race in truck series history.

"Obviously, there was some slick stuff out there," Busch said. "I came down into turn one with a little cushion and the next thing I knew, I was off the throttle and we were spinning sideways.

"Luckily, we had a good enough cushion that we were able to pull it off."

Luck, however, had nothing to do with Busch's final pit stop. Busch had been chasing Bryan Reffner and Houston and was running third when the caution came out on lap 81 of the 100-lap race, but was able to beat both Reffner and Houston out of the pits.

"My crew did an awesome job to get me out there in front," said Busch, who finished second in the series points standings. "We came out of the pits with the lead and that's what it takes to win -- a team commitment."

Joe Ruttman finished third, Jack Sprague was fourth and series champion Greg Biffle was fifth.

The race was slowed by three caution periods for 11 laps but Busch still was able to average 144.260 mph and set a truck series record. There were six lead changes among six drivers.