Kyle Busch

The Auto Club 400 will finish today, regardless of the weather. The race reached the halfway point, so should there be a permanent stoppage the race will be declared official. The race leader at the 200-mile point was Tony Stewart, who took the lead from Kyle Busch on the 85th lap. Until that point, Busch had led all but four laps. The second round of pit stops started about Lap 67. Busch and Stewart pitted at the same time, and Busch beat Stewart back onto the track. But, there was little doubt that Stewart had the car to beat.

Brad Keselowski got a huge push from Kyle Busch to take the lead with a lap to go Sunday, then used a calculated move to prevent Busch from taking the win away from him at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. A nine-car accident with four laps remaining brought out the yellow flag, setting up a two-lap overtime sprint to the finish. Keselowski ended up in Victory Lane for the second time this season, and continued a hot streak for team owner Roger Penske , who won for the first time in the Sprint Cup Series at Talladega.

Kyle Busch saved his NASCAR Sprint Cup season Saturday night by winning a gutsy side-by-side sprint to the finish against Mark Martin at Bristol Motor Speedway at Bristol, Tenn. Fighting hard for a berth in the Chase for the Championship, Busch drove a steady and smooth race at one of the toughest tracks in NASCAR. His fourth win of the season -- tied with Martin for most in the Sprint Cup Series -- jumped him two spots in the standings to 13th. With two races to go before the 12-driver field is set, Busch trails 12th-place driver Matt Kenseth by only 34 points.

Kyle Busch capped a perfect weekend in Virginia on Saturday night by winning the spring NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Richmond for the fourth consecutive year. The victory snaps a 22-race winless streak for Busch. It came a day after he went to Victory Lane for the first time as a Nationwide Series team owner, celebrating brother Kurt Busch's Friday night win. Busch beat Tony Stewart off pit road on the final stop of the race, which came after a caution for debris with 13 laps to go. He then pulled away from Stewart on the restart with nine laps left and wasn't challenged for the victory.

Check off a major accomplishment from Kyle Busch's bucket list. Busch fended off strong challenges from David Reutimann and Jamie McMurray to win Saturday's Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and complete his unprecedented sweep of three NASCAR national touring events at the same track in the same week. On Lap 429 of 500, Busch nosed past Reutimann after an intense 15-lap battle and pulled away to a Sprint Cup victory that fit quite nicely with his Wednesday win in the Camping World Truck Series and his Friday triumph in the Nationwide Series.

Kyle Busch won Nationwide Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday ? a victory that gave Joe Gibbs Racing the owner's championship. It was Busch's 13th win of the Nationwide season and career victory No. 43 in that series, second only to Mark Martin's 48 wins. It followed Busch's victory Friday night in the Trucks Series, which also gave him the owner's championship in that series. Busch headed into Sunday's NASCAR finale looking for a weekend sweep, but he was thinking about the big picture instead of his own personal accomplishments.

Kyle Busch led 378 of 503 laps Sunday to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, his second victory this season. "This place probably owes me a few," said Busch, who has had bad luck at the track. "But you can never ask a racetrack to pay you back. You just have to just keep working on it." Busch was untouchable in his Toyota, even to teammate Denny Hamlin, who followed him across the finish line.

Kyle Busch was the halfway leader Sunday in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway. On a postcard-perfect day with temperatures in the 80s, Kevin Harvick was second and pole-sitter Mark Martin was third in the 312-lap race. Jimmie Johnson, the only four-time winner at Phoenix, led 55 laps but later suffered a right-rear wheel problem that dropped him to 19th. The biggest crash came on Lap 131 when A.J. Allmendinger, Paul Menard and Jamie McMurray made contact coming out of Turn 4, sending Allmendinger and Menard into the wall.

It was a race that Kyle Busch couldn't lose. He had a great car and he was getting every bit out of it, leading 151 of the 200 laps. So when racing's self-declared bad boy was run down by not one, but two drivers in the last laps of the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, it was time to wait for the fireworks. But a funny thing happened on the way to the interview room. Not funny ha-ha, but odd. He thanked his pit crew. He thanked the entire organization. He even thanked his car for giving everything it had. Witness the maturation of Kyle Busch.

Kyle Busch capped a perfect weekend in Virginia on Saturday night by winning the spring NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Richmond for the fourth consecutive year. The victory snaps a 22-race winless streak for Busch. It came a day after he went to Victory Lane for the first time as a Nationwide Series team owner, celebrating brother Kurt Busch's Friday night win. Busch beat Tony Stewart off pit road on the final stop of the race, which came after a caution for debris with 13 laps to go. He then pulled away from Stewart on the restart with nine laps left and wasn't challenged for the victory.

Kyle Busch took the lead early and held it after 100 miles of the Auto Club 400 in Fontana. There was no doubt that the drivers had a sense of urgency when the race started as the sky grew darker. Denny Hamlin won the first lap but soon gave up the lead to Busch on the second lap. By the sixth lap Busch had even extended his lead to almost a second. Tony Stewart, who started ninth, made a move as the race progressed. By the 18th lap he had moved up to fourth. By the 19th lap he passed Greg Biffle to move into third.

The Auto Club 400 will finish today, regardless of the weather. The race reached the halfway point, so should there be a permanent stoppage the race will be declared official. The race leader at the 200-mile point was Tony Stewart, who took the lead from Kyle Busch on the 85th lap. Until that point, Busch had led all but four laps. The second round of pit stops started about Lap 67. Busch and Stewart pitted at the same time, and Busch beat Stewart back onto the track. But, there was little doubt that Stewart had the car to beat.

Ninety minutes before Sunday's NASCAR race, with sunshine still peeking through the growing clouds, Auto Club Speedway President Gillian Zucker was asked about the rainstorm bearing down on the Fontana track. Ever the optimist, Zucker said, "I'm extremely confident we'll get the race in today. " She was right, barely. With Tony Stewart leading, the Auto Club 400 had just crossed the halfway point — and become an official race — when steady rain arrived and the rest of the race was washed out. So Stewart, the reigning Sprint Cup Series champion, collected his second win in five races this season, the other coming in Las Vegas.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was feeling pressure even before the NASCAR driver's first practice Friday at Auto Club Speedway. "I'm just worried about qualifying," Earnhardt said of trying to earn an up-front spot for his No. 88 Chevrolet in Sunday's Auto Club 400. "I want to qualify well. If you don't start up front, it's really hard to get there. " But the popular Sprint Cup Series driver didn't quite get his wish. After practice, he qualified 14th in the 43-car field with a lap of 184.530 mph. Denny Hamlin won the pole position with a lap of 186.403 mph in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, and his teammate Kyle Busch was second at 185.534 mph. Veteran Mark Martin qualified third, and current Cup points leader Greg Biffle was fourth.

Reporting from Las Vegas -- ¿¿Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch hit the wall during practice Saturday for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, forcing both to use backup cars for Sunday's race. The shift to backup cars also means Johnson and Busch will have to start the Kobalt Tools 400 at the rear of the 43-car field. Johnson, the only four-time Cup series winner at Las Vegas, slammed into the Turn 2 wall after losing control on the 1.5-mile Las Vegas oval early in the final round of practice.

Reporting from Avondale, Ariz. NASCAR's Denny Hamlin is off to a fast start in this year's title chase thanks to his victory in Phoenix, but other early trends are developing as well. Here are some story lines to take away from Sunday's race at Phoenix International Raceway as the Sprint Cup Series heads to the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway next weekend. -- Joe Gibbs Racing is strong out of the gate after a disappointing 2011 . Not only did Hamlin earn his first victory at Phoenix, he climbed atop the early Cup standings.

Brad Keselowski held off points leader Kyle Busch on the final lap to win the Kroger On Track For the Cure 250 in a green-white-checker finish in Saturday's Nationwide Series race. Keselowski was leading at Memphis Motorsports Park in Tennessee when a caution came out with two laps to go because Stephen Wallace spun after tangling with Matt Kenseth. Wallace banged into Kenseth's car after the race and the two had words on pit road. Keselowski held on to the lead through the overtime segment.

The feud between NASCAR drivers Kyle Busch and David Reutimann continued to simmer Friday as they prepared for Sunday's Pepsi Max 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Reutimann banged his car into Busch's at high speed during last weekend's Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway in retaliation for Busch bumping him earlier in the race. The latter incident so damaged Busch's car that he finished 21st. That was a significant blow to Busch because he's among the 12 drivers trying to win the series championship in NASCAR's 10-race Chase for the Cup title playoff, the fourth of which is Sunday.

Kyle Busch was the halfway leader Sunday in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway. On a postcard-perfect day with temperatures in the 80s, Kevin Harvick was second and pole-sitter Mark Martin was third in the 312-lap race. Jimmie Johnson, the only four-time winner at Phoenix, led 55 laps but later suffered a right-rear wheel problem that dropped him to 19th. The biggest crash came on Lap 131 when A.J. Allmendinger, Paul Menard and Jamie McMurray made contact coming out of Turn 4, sending Allmendinger and Menard into the wall.