McMurray too quick for Kyle

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Jamie McMurray thought he had the fastest car from the first practice to the final lap Saturday night.

McMurray proved the point by taking the lead for good on the final restart and holding off Kyle Busch to win the Great Clips 300 Nationwide Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Busch, trying to become the first driver in the 28-year history of the Nationwide Series to win 11 races in a season, fell short in his late attempt to catch McMurray.

Busch dropped from first to third as McMurray took the lead coming out of pit row following the final caution flag on the 167th of 195 laps.

"(McMurray) definitely wanted to get in front on the restart," crew chief Tony Eury Sr. said. "He got out in the middle and got in front. That's the kind of move you have to make to win the race."

Busch led the most laps but finished second, less than a second behind McMurray. Carl Edwards was third.

Busch was slowly cutting into McMurray's lead before running out of laps.

McMurray, who raced to his first Nationwide Series victory at Atlanta in 2002, won for the first time since 2004 at Darlington. He has two Sprint Cup wins this year.

"I think Jamie is showing everybody how good he is this year," Edwards said.

McMurray started seventh but said, "We unloaded as the fastest car here on the first practice."

"We just had a really good day," he said. "At the end we just had tons of speed, and certainly getting out in front on that last restart was critical. ... Fortunately we got a jump there and got ahead of Kyle. The clean air out front is huge."

Kevin Harvick finished fourth, followed by Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano. Jason Leffler, Ryan Newman, Paul Menard and rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top 10.

Busch will have to try another week for his record win. Sam Ard won 10 Nationwide races in 1983, and Busch matched that mark in 2008. Busch's 10th win this season came Aug. 20 at Bristol, Tenn.

Busch also finished second to Harvick in the 2009 Atlanta Nationwide race. In each case, he said he was hurt by late caution flags.

"We just didn't quite have enough there on the short run to keep up with (McMurray)," Busch said.

Harvick's tire strategy helped him look like the driver to beat in the middle of the race.

Harvick emerged from the second caution on lap 60 in 14th place after taking on fresh tires while Busch and most other leaders remained on the track.

The fresh tread made an immediate difference as Harvick began passing cars with ease and took the lead from McMurray on lap 70. As he neared the midpoint of the race, Harvick had pushed his lead over the second-place Busch to a bewildering margin of 11 seconds.

Harvick led by about 13 seconds before he finally took his turn on pit row for gas and tires on lap 122 of the 195-lap race, giving Busch an opening to reclaim the lead.

"Harvick, with that little show he put on in the middle of the race, we knew tires would be big at the end," Eury said.

Pole-sitter Kasey Kahne was in the top 10 after the third caution before his hopes of winning ended when a problem with his right front fender forced him off the track. He was three laps down when he left pit row and finished 19th.

Soon after Kahne's problem, Reed Sorenson's day ended with his nose-first crash into the wall, forcing the final yellow flag that set up McMurray's decisive move. Sorenson was checked and released from the infield care center.

■ IRL -- At Sparta, Ky., Helio Castroneves won the Indy 300, stretching his fuel over the final laps to beat pole-sitter Ed Carpenter at Kentucky Speedway.

Castroneves survived the final 53 laps on one tank of fuel, taking advantage when the drivers in front of him had to make late pit stops to fill up.

Ed Carpenter was second, followed by Dan Wheldon, Tony Kannan and Dario Franchitti. Series points leader Will Power led 82 laps but dropped to eighth after a late-race slip.

The victory was the first for Castroneves since taking the checkered flag in Alabama in April.

Danica Patrick finished ninth

■ NHRA -- At Clermont, Ind., Larry Dixon took the Top Fuel qualifying lead at the U.S. Nationals, capping a record-setting day at O'Reilly Raceway Park.

Dixon, winner of nine races and the top seed entering the NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship, had a track-record run of 3.776 seconds at 324.36 mph.

Matt Hagan (Top Fuel), Jeg Coughlin (Pro Stock) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also led their divisions in the first of six playoff events.

Hines set a national record with a 6.815-second run at a track-record speed of 195.17 mph on a Harley-Davidson.