#17-Matt Kenseth swept by #5-Kyle Busch on Lap 186 of Saturday’s O’Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, then passed #25-Bobby Hamilton Jr. just as a caution was coming out on Lap 195. After the race was red-flagged, Kenseth then pulled away on the restart with three laps to go and went on to win easily. Kenseth had tried a two-tire stop early in the race. The decision “wasn’t the end of the world,” he said, but it did drop him back a bit as Busch led 147 of the first 178 laps. Hamilton Jr. took the lead after that, but by that time Kenseth was coming fast. #55-Robby Gordon wound up third, with #1-Johnny Benson fourth and Hamilton Jr. holding off #00-Jason Leffler for fifth thanks to a caution on the final lap that froze the field and kept Hamilton Jr.’s faltering Ford from losing more ground. #37-David Green finished eighth and took over the lead in the Busch Series driver’s standings. Nextel Cup regular and Busch Series part-timer Kevin Harvick led coming in, but he didn’t race on Saturday. Green now leads #8-Martin Truex Jr., who rallied from a lap down to finish 10th, by 17 points with Michael Waltrip 43 back and Busch 74 behind.(ThatsRacin.com report)
See results at ThatsRacin.com, BGNRacing.com, MotorsportsOne or NASCAR.com.(4-3-2004)
