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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, April 17, 2010

Auto racing: Kyle Busch's drive for 5 in a row at Texas delayed


STEPHEN HAWKINS
AP Sports Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas — Kyle Busch's drive for five at Texas Motor Speedway was delayed by rain.

The wet weather and more forecasted showers led to the postponement of Saturday's Nationwide race at Texas, where Busch is trying to join two-time series champion Jack Ingram and Dale Earnhardt as the only drivers to win five consecutive races in NASCAR's second-tier series at the same track.

The race, which was called off more than three hours after it was supposed to start, was rescheduled for Sunday night after the Sprint Cup race earlier in the day.

Weather still could be an issue Sunday, when there is a good chance for more rain.

If both races are run Sunday, Nationwide points leader Brad Keselowski and Busch are among 15 drivers scheduled to do double duty. That would mean 800 miles behind the wheel at the 1½-mile, high-banked track — 500 miles for the Cup race and 300 more in the Nationwide race.

"It's going to be a long day," Keselowski said. "Those are tough days. Those kind of days challenge you not only as a competitor, but as an athlete. ... It makes it interesting."

Earnhardt won the season-opening race at Daytona from 1990-94. Ingram, the second-tier series' champ in 1982 and 1985, won five times in a row at South Boston Speedway in Virginia during the 1986 season.

Since a runner-up Nationwide finish to Kevin Harvick in November 2007, Busch swept both races at Texas in 2008 and again last year. He has led 657 of 800 laps (82 percent) during his winning streak.

Another win would put him in some select company.

"It's neat to be in the history books in those respects," Busch said. "It's been a lot of fun to come and run here the last couple years in the Nationwide Series and be as good and dominant as we've been."

The laps Busch has led at Texas in the four-race winning streak equal more than 985 miles — the distance of a drive across the Lone Star State, from Texarkana on Interstate 30 West to Dallas, then I-35 South to San Antonio and finally I-10 West to El Paso.

Busch already has won two Nationwide races in his No. 18 Toyota this season, with two other third-place finishes in his six starts.