BY THE TIME KYLE GETS TO PHOENIX

Kyle Busch held off a frenetic challenge from Carl Edwards in the closing laps of Saturday’s Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway and collected his 44th NASCAR Nationwide Series victory. Having won Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at the 1-mile track, Busch will try for a weekend sweep Sunday in the Subway Fresh Fit 500 Sprint Cup event. Busch became the only driver to sweep races in NASCAR’s top three series at the same track on the same weekend when he accomplished the feat last August at Bristol. Edwards, who finished .514 seconds behind Busch, made a contest of the race over the final 20 laps, running side by side with Busch for extended stretches as the race neared its end. Busch became the first driver to lead every lap of an event in one of NASCAR’s top three series since Dale Earnhardt Jr. accomplished the feat July 4, 2003, in a NASCAR Nationwide series race at Daytona. Danica Patrick finished 17th, three laps down, and posted her third straight top-20 result in the series.

EDWARDS WINS: BUT WAS IT FAIRLY ?

The feud between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski — dormant since Atlanta in March — erupted like an angry volcano at Gateway International Raceway. In a duel to the finish line, Edwards sent Keselowski hard into the outside wall on the way to winning Saturday night's Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 Nationwide Series race at the 1.25-mile track. As Edwards took the checkered flag two car lengths ahead of runner-up Reed Sorenson, Keselowski careened into the inside retaining wall and took a vicious shot from Shelby Howard's Chevrolet just short of the finish line. Less than a lap earlier, Keselowski had bumped Edwards in Turn 1 in an attempt to take the lead after a restart on Lap 199 of 200. Edwards' Ford and Keselowski's Dodge raced side-by-side for most of the final lap. With Keselowski edging ahead as the cars approached the stripe, Edwards turned Keselowski's Dodge, igniting a multicar pileup on the frontstretch. "I just couldn't let him take the win from me," said Edwards, who drew a three-race probation in March for unabashedly turning Keselowski in a Sprint Cup race at Atlanta, with the unintended consequence of sending the No. 12 Dodge upside-down into the frontstretch wall. "My guys work way too hard for that.

EARNHARDT JUNIOR TAKES THE #3 TO A DAYTONA WIN

JUNIOR WINS AT DAYTONA: “This one’s for Daddy”

Dale Earnhardt Jnr. has taken an emotional victory at the Nationwide Cup round at Dayton Speedway. Driving the Number 3 made famous by his late father, who died in an accident at the same track, Earnhardt gave Chevrolet the perfect debut for their next generation Impala. Wearing the original blue & yellow livery of his fathers car, “Junior” held his nerve and his twitchy car to just edge out the Toyota of Joey Logano. Rookie driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was third in the new Ford Mustang. “A win was the only acceptable result.” said an emotional Earnhardt after the race. “if we hadn't of won then everybody would have been saying 'what's the point'.

NASCAR: BRINGING THE STOCK BACK INTO STOCK CAR RACING

It's ironic that the National Association of Stock Car Racing race a brand of car that is anything but stock. Yet there was once a time when at least the cars had some passing resemblance to the sort of machine that US buyers could find in their showrooms on Monday morning. That all changed when NASCAR adopted it's new regulations rather amusingly dubbed "The Car of Tomorrow". Apart from the fact that anything powered by a six litre carburettor fed pushrod V8 could hardly be looking towards the future, the fact is that they were just plain ugly. It was as if, inspired by their cousins at the Grand-Am, they set out to create a car even less aesthetically pleasant than the awful looking Daytona Prototypes. But this weekend at Daytona all that changes.

KELLY FIFTH AS EDWARDS WINS FOR FORD

Australian Owen Kelly has finished fifth in his NASCAR Nationwide race debut at Road America. Carl Edwards driving a Ford won the race which was marred by a massive 10 car pile-up which brought out the red flag. Robb Brent slammed into the back of Tony Raines’ car as the field scrambled to avoid the incident. 10 cars were damaged causing NASCAR officials to call the red flag. The race was restarted over 30 minutes later. Second place in the race went to veteran road course specialist Ron Fellows in a Chevrolet ahead of the Toyota of Brendan Gaughan.

AMBROSE ON TOP IN NASCAR PRACTICE. KELLY SHINES ON DEBUT

Marcos Ambrose has made the early running in this weekend's NASCAR Road Course race at Infinion Raceway, Sonoma. Ambrose took his Toyota to a fastest lap time of 76.375 at 93.800 MPH to edge out the Chevys of Clint Boyer and Ryan Newman. GT driver Jan Magnussen was off the early pace back in 26th place. DTM star Mattias Ekstrom also found his first taste of US stockcars quite a challenge ending the day in 40th place. Meanwhile in the Nationwide Cup at the spectacular Road America circuit, Aussie NASCAR debutante Owen Kelly has done well finishing the day in sixth position. Fastest time at Road America went to former Formula One World Champion Jacques Villeneuve. The Nationwide race from Road America can be seen in Australia on ONE HD early Monday morning, with a delayed telecast of Sprint Cup action also on ONE Tuesday night at 8.30 p.m.

KESELOWSKI CREAMS ‘EM AT RICHMOND

RICHMOND, Va.—After a late caution turned a runaway into a challenge for Brad Keselowski, a late four-tire call proved decisive, as Keselowski stormed to the front from fourth place during a green-white-checkered-flag finish to win Friday night's Bubba Burger 250 Nationwide Series race at Richmond International Raceway. Keselowski, who led 189 of 252 laps, had an advantage of almost two seconds when Paul Menard slammed the Turn 2 wall on Lap 245 of a scheduled 250 at the .75-mile short track. "I'm coming," Keselowski radioed to crew chief Paul Wolfe, steering his car toward pit road for a four-tire stop. Kyle Busch and Justin Allgaier stayed out on old tires, while Jamie McMurray and Greg Biffle each took two. Busch led the field to green on Lap 251 with Allgaier beside him, McMurray on the inside of the second row and Keselowski alongside in fourth. Biffle surged forward from the fifth spot, and by the time the cars reached Turn 3 on the next-to-last lap, Keselowski and Biffle had separated themselves from the pack. A lap later, Keselowski passed to the inside and ultimately crossed the finish line .261 seconds ahead of Biffle. McMurray finished third, Busch fourth and Carl Edwards fifth. Keselowski extended his series lead to 59 points over seventh-place finisher Kevin Harvick.

FORMULA ONE: AS SEEN ON TV

Australian free to air television network "Network Ten" have announced a five-year extension of its exclusive Australian broadcast rights to Formula 1. The new agreement commences at the start of the 2011season and extends through to the end of 2015. The new agreement with Formula One Management will see the network continue it's live F1 coverage on the digital only ONE HD Sports channel as well as with delayed coverage on TEN. The Australian Grand Prix race will also be broadcast live simultaneously on TEN as is required under Australia's anti-siphoning rules. For the first time the new deal also covers online, mobile and IPTV rights as well. Network Ten's general manager – sport, David White, said: "Formula 1 has always had a large, passionate and loyal following in Australia."