Stenhouse steals sixth Nationwide win at Kansas

• Rickey Stenhouse Jr. won his sixth Nationwide Series race of the year at Kansas Speedway
• Stenhouse was able to cruise to victory after multiple leaders ran out of gas
• A late caution tacked on six extra laps that cost some of the leaders precious fuel

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kyle Busch's woes continued, Danica Patrick scored one of her best finishes of the year and Ricky Stenhouse rallied from two laps down to win and close Elliott Sadler's lead for the NASCAR Nationwide title Saturday at Kansas Speedway.

Kyle Busch ran out of fuel while leading less than a mile from winning his first Nationwide race for his own team.

"That's our year, man. Nothing else to it than that," said Busch, who led 29 laps. "What a frustrating defeat. Oh, well. You get defeated sometimes."

Busch's misfortune allowed Stenhouse to complete his rally from two laps down rally to score his sixth victory of the season.

Patrick finished 10th, earning her third top-10 of the season.

A late caution extended the race by six laps, and it stretched the fuel tanks of several cars at the front of the field.

Not Stenhouse, though. Because he ran into Joey Logano early into the race and had to make stops for repairs, he was on a different pit sequence and had plenty of gas to make it to the end. So he liked his chances when he lined up fifth on the final restart.

As the field prepared to take the green, Sam Hornish Jr. ran out of gas and NASCAR called off the start. It tacked on yet another lap, and that cost Paul Menard, who led a race-high 110 laps but ran out of gas as the field took the green.

Busch, who was seeking his first Nationwide win of the season and first in his Kyle Busch Motorsports entry, was the leader on the restart and jumped out to a comfortable lead. But his tank ran dry as he exited the third turn, and Stenhouse cruised past for the improbable victory.

"I saw Kyle and he was really shaking it down the back straightaway trying to make sure it had a lot of fuel and I thought it was good to go," Stenhouse said. "But right in the center it ran out and I was able to sneak by him on the outside and get the win. That was exciting."

After getting her lap back 68 laps from the finish, Patrick climbed as high as second after a restart with 31 laps to go but once the field settled, she fell back.

"I felt like my car was really strong on the restarts,'' said Patrick, who scored her season-best fifth consecutive top-20 finish. "I think it shows the car was good, it was reliable. I think there were some cars that were a little faster but when we needed it, it was there, it's just a bummer that we didn't get quite what I thought we should have got at the end there. I thought we were going to be in really good shape.

"That's probably one of the funnest races I've ever had in a Nationwide car other than maybe a Vegas race (career-high 4th). We were passing lots of cars. We need to be a little bit quicker still but we also need to hit the setup just right.''

Stenhouse trails Elliott Sadler by six points with three races left. Sadler finished fourth. Austin Dillon, who placed second, is 26 points behind Sadler. Logano finished third.

It didn't appear as if Stenhouse would be that close. Trying to get debris off his grille, he ran into Joey Logano's car and, as Logano later said, "fenced him'' 98 laps from the finish.

"He got tight underneath me, and I got tight because he was putting so much air on my spoiler,'' Logano said of Stenhouse. "Going up the track, I came off the gas and he didn't come up the gas enough.''

Stenhouse's car owner, Jack Roush, said the incident was "100 percent Ricky's fault, he just ran into him. We're all sorry about that.''

Stenhouse fell two laps down after that incident. He needed about 60 laps to get back on the lead lap.

Stenhouse figured the race was ruined at the time, and focused on getting as many points as possible.

"I thought the race was over for us. I thought I had killed it for us," Stenhouse said. "I knew we would try to salvage as many points as we could. To be honest I was thinking top-15 and to try to get back one lap down and it was one thing at a time and we were able to do that."

A two-car crash 2 laps from the scheduled finish extended the race, forcing some to pit for fuel. Sadler and Dillon were among those who did.

"Sometimes you're on the right side of all the fuel mileage and strategy and sometimes you're on the wrong side,'' Sadler said. "That last caution just killed us and took a lot of points from us.''

Cole Whitt was fifth and followed by Busch, who has won a Nationwide race every year since 2004 but has only three chances left to keep his streak active.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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Kansas Lottery 300 results

Saturday's results from Kansas Speedway:

1. (10) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 206 laps, 113.7 rating, 47 points, $91,143.

2. (2) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 206, 122.7, 43, $65,718.

3. (1) Joey Logano, Toyota, 206, 107.8, 0, $50,125.

4. (7) Elliott Sadler, Chevrolet, 206, 103.1, 40, $38,533.

5. (8) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 206, 109.3, 39, $35,158.

6. (6) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 206, 118.2, 0, $24,190.

7. (21) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 206, 94.9, 38, $32,208.

8. (14) Michael Annett, Ford, 206, 96.4, 36, $28,508.

9. (12) Sam Hornish Jr., Dodge, 206, 111.7, 35, $27,418.

10. (13) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 206, 98.9, 34, $27,783.

11. (27) Ryan Blaney, Dodge, 206, 98.3, 0, $26,058.

12. (22) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 206, 80.7, 32, $25,508.

13. (23) Mike Bliss, Toyota, 206, 81.6, 31, $24,958.

14. (37) Danny Efland, Chevrolet, 206, 62.3, 30, $24,448.

15. (15) Eric McClure, Toyota, 205, 71.5, 29, $24,888.

16. (5) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, fuel, 204, 133.1, 0, $20,160.

17. (39) Erik Darnell, Chevrolet, 204, 56.9, 27, $23,493.

18. (4) Kenny Wallace, Toyota, fuel, 203, 83.8, 26, $23,983.

19. (32) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 202, 51.2, 25, $16,555.

20. (24) Jason Bowles, Dodge, 201, 65.7, 24, $23,488.

21. (29) Mike Wallace, Chevrolet, 200, 65.3, 23, $22,703.

22. (33) Jennifer Jo Cobb, Chevrolet, 200, 53, 0, $16,125.

23. (26) Brad Sweet, Chevrolet, engine, 199, 78.4, 21, $22,458.

24. (19) Scott Lagasse Jr., Chevrolet, accident, 197, 68.5, 20, $15,875.

25. (16) Hal Martin, Toyota, accident, 182, 57.6, 19, $22,683.

26. (3) Brian Scott, Toyota, 177, 71.9, 18, $23,098.

27. (42) Dexter Stacey, Ford, 165, 46.3, 17, $21,988.

28. (17) James Buescher, Chevrolet, engine, 155, 71.7, 0, $21,868.

29. (40) Derek White, Toyota, accident, 130, 42.3, 15, $21,718.

30. (31) Tony Raines, Chevrolet, vibration, 123, 41.4, 0, $15,440.

31. (9) Johanna Long, Chevrolet, accident, 109, 70.8, 13, $21,473.

32. (43) Morgan Shepherd, Chevrolet, rear gear, 75, 44.4, 12, $14,895.

33. (41) Nur Ali, Chevrolet, accident, 68, 38, 11, $21,253.

34. (30) Scott Saunders, Ford, accident, 31, 47.2, 10, $14,675.

35. (11) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, water pump, 24, 57, 9, $14,565.

36. (25) Blake Koch, Toyota, ignition, 24, 40.6, 8, $14,455.

37. (36) Carl Long, Chevrolet, overheating, 23, 36.6, 7, $14,335.

38. (34) Timmy Hill, Ford, engine, 14, 37.1, 6, $14,275.

39. (35) Robert Richardson Jr., Chevrolet, clutch, 14, 37.9, 5, $13,940.

40. (28) J.J. Yeley, Chevrolet, vibration, 9, 36.3, 0, $13,830.

41. (38) Mike Harmon, Chevrolet, rear gear, 8, 30.9, 3, $13,725.

42. (18) Jeff Green, Toyota, vibration, 4, 33.4, 2, $13,520.

43. (20) Chase Miller, Chevrolet, ignition, 4, 32.3, 1, $13,413.

Race statistics

Average speed of race winner: 111.597 mph. Time of race: 2 hours, 46 minutes, 8 seconds. Margin of victory: 0.288 seconds. Caution flags: 12 for 50 laps. Lead changes: 14 among 6 drivers.

Lap leaders: J.Logano 1-34; R.Stenhouse Jr. 35-37; P.Menard 38-44; R.Stenhouse Jr. 45-53; P.Menard 54-58; R.Stenhouse Jr. 59-70; P.Menard 71-112; A.Dillon 113-117; P.Menard 118-139; J.Allgaier 140-142; P.Menard 143-175; K.Busch 176-183; P.Menard 184; K.Busch 185-205; R.Stenhouse Jr. 206.

Leaders summary (Driver, times led, laps led): P.Menard, 6 times for 110 laps; J.Logano, 1 time for 34 laps; K.Busch, 2 times for 29 laps; R.Stenhouse Jr., 4 times for 25 laps; A.Dillon, 1 time for 5 laps; J.Allgaier, 1 time for 3 laps.

Top 10 in points: 1. E.Sadler, 1,136; 2. R.Stenhouse Jr., 1,130; 3. A.Dillon, 1,110; 4. S.Hornish Jr., 1,038; 5. M.Annett, 986; 6. J.Allgaier, 974; 7. C.Whitt, 913; 8. M.Bliss, 820; 9. B.Scott, 758; 10. D.Patrick, 742.