SONOMA, Calif. -- Kyle Busch struggled with the twisty Infineon Raceway road course here when he joined NASCAR's top circuit three years ago.
"I looked like a fish out of water at first," acknowledged Busch who, like many Sprint Cup drivers, grew up racing mainly on ovals. "I got pretty good, I guess, a little bit later on."
By Sunday, he had become very good.
Busch dominated the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the 1.99-mile Infineon course for his series-high fifth win of the season and increased his lead in the championship standings.
Busch praised crew chief Steve Addington and the rest of his Joe Gibbs Racing team for adjustments that made his No. 18 Toyota Camry so strong, because the car was "junk" when it arrived in wine country last week.
"It means so much to me that these guys were able to do that," said Busch, whose stellar season and cocky confidence have earned him nicknames such as "Wild Thing" and made him a driver many NASCAR fans love to hate.
"We changed everything from Friday and Saturday," he said. "I thought it was just going to be a dismal weekend, and I was trying to figure out what tire barrier I was going to put it in."
David Gilliland, a Riverside native and friend of Busch's, finished second for his best finish since joining the Cup series two years ago at this race.
The Yates Racing driver knows the hilly Infineon course well. He and his father, Butch Gilliland, previously raced here in NASCAR's lower-level series.
Five-time Infineon winner Jeff Gordon finished third for Hendrick Motorsports, and Clint Bowyer of Richard Childress Racing was fourth.
Gilliland, who started 31st, said he wanted to catch Busch in the final laps but then switched his focus to simply staying in front of Gordon, a four-time Cup champion.
Seeing Gordon in his rear-view mirror was "an uncomfortable feeling, I can tell you that," Gilliland said. "It was in my hands not to make a mistake, and that's harder than it sounds here."
Busch, a 23-year-old Las Vegas native, has now proved he can win on any type of layout at the Cup level -- short tracks, intermediates, superspeedways and road courses. In April, while racing in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series, Busch also won a road-course race in Mexico City.
On Sunday, Busch jumped from his 30th starting spot to 13th during the first green-flag run and then led nearly the entire second half of the race in front of an estimated 100,000.
