MOTORSPORTS ROUNDUP Saturday's action

Busch Series
BROOKLYN, Mich. -- It took Kyle Busch 27 laps to work his way to the lead Saturday despite starting second. After that, though, there was little doubt who was the fastest driver in the Cabela's 250 NASCAR Busch Series race. The 19-year-old Busch, younger brother of Nextel Cup driver Kurt Busch, led 87 of the 125 laps on the 2-mile oval at Michigan International Speedway. Three times he had leads of more than five seconds wiped out but still beat runner-up Mark Martin to the finish by 3.861 seconds -- nearly half a straightaway. Series leader Martin Truex Jr., who led only the first 22 laps after starting from the pole, finished third but saw his lead over runner-up Busch cut from 117 to 87 points. It was the series-leading fifth victory of the season for Busch, the first rookie to win that many races since Greg Biffle won five in 1989. Truex was followed across the finish line by Cup regulars Casey Mears, Kasey Kahne and Rusty Wallace -- making his first Busch start since 1997. Busch fell behind seven drivers who had topped off their gas tanks during an earlier caution period and who stayed on track when the leaders pitted on lap 87. After the restart on lap 92, it took Busch only three laps to charge past all seven to regain the lead, with Martin and Truex soon following. The leader built a lead of 5.158 seconds by lap 111, but Martin and Truex got one last shot at Busch when the record eighth caution flag of the race waved on lap 112 because of debris at the pit entrance. It was no help. Busch's Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet shot away on the restart on lap 116 and moved steadily ahead, leading by half a second after one lap, more than one second after the second trip around the high-banked oval and continuing to pull away all the way to the finish. Thirty-three laps run under caution held Busch's winning speed to 122.166 mph, the slowest in 13 Busch races at Michigan. The lineup for Saturday's race was set mostly by car owner points after qualifying was rained out Friday.
IRL qualifying
FOUNTAIN, Colo. -- Tony Kanaan was disappointed after his team landed four of the top six spots for the Honda 225 at Pikes Peak International Raceway. He wanted Andretti Green Racing to get all the top slots. Kanaan finished with the best practice time Saturday before qualifying was rained out, and will start on the front row today next to teammate Dan Wheldon. Andretti driver Dario Franchitti will start fourth and Bryan Herta sixth in the 225-lap race. Kanaan leads the IRL IndyCar series by 50 points over Buddy Rice with five races remaining. Kanaan spent the first part of qualifying working on his car's setup for the race, then came out in the second session with a time of 20.6527 seconds at 174.311 mph to put his Honda on the pole for the second time this season. Wheldon was 0.0803 behind, with Vitor Meira third. The drivers were set to start qualifying on the 1-mile tri-oval when rain hit about 15 minutes before the first car was to take the track. The steady rain means the teams will have to make plenty of adjustments on a fresh track, but that's nothing new. They had to do it Saturday morning after thunderstorms doused the surface Friday. Rice, runner-up last week in Kentucky, spent most of his practice sessions working on race setup and never got up to full speed. He'll start 11th today.
Associated Press
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