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| | Sunday, October 29 Busch wins race from pole | |||||
| Associated Press FONTANA, Calif. -- Kurt Busch closed out a spectacular rookie season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with a record-setting victory in Saturday's Motorola 200 at California Speedway. Busch, 22, who will make a full-time move to the Winston Cup stock car series next season, beat Andy Houston to the finish line by 0.775 seconds -- six truck-lengths -- in winning for the fourth time this season. It gave Jack Roush Racing the first 1-2 championship finish in the six-year history of the truck series. Teammate Greg Biffle, who wrapped up the championship on Oct. 13 at Texas Motor Speedway, finished fifth Saturday, behind Joe Ruttman and two-time series champion and two-time defending race winner Jack Sprague. Busch, who had already wrapped up rookie of the year honors, started from the pole but led only the final 19 of 100 laps on the 2-mile, high-banked oval. He took the top spot during a round of pit stops. Busch came into the pits third and emerged first, beating both previous leader Bryan Reffner, who had trouble with a tire during the stop, and Houston back to the track. Reffner finished sixth. The winner averaged 144.260 mph, breaking the race record of 141.844 set in 1998 by Sprague. It was the third time Busch has won from the pole and the record 10th time a race was won from the top starting spot this season. Busch wound up the season 230 points behind Biffle and just 30 ahead of Houston in the championship. | ALSO SEE Motorola 200 results AUDIO/VIDEO   Rookie Kurt Busch comments on his record-setting victory at the California Speedway.wav: 535 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 | |||||