Truex captures second straight Busch crown

He placed seventh in the season-ending Ford 300 race to win another title.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -- Martin Truex Jr. had another championship and a headache Saturday night after the season-ending Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
"My head hurts and I'm just glad it's over," Truex said after surviving a series of setbacks to finish seventh in the race and grab his second straight NASCAR Busch Series title on a night when Ryan Newman raced to another victory.
Nextel Cup stars Newman and Greg Biffle battled at the front of the pack through most of the season-ending, 200-lap race before Newman took the lead for good with a daring pass three laps from the end.
Truex came into the race with a 64-point lead over Clint Bowyer and wound up winning by 68 points as Bowyer finished just behind him in eighth.
"There were times this year when we just weren't running very good," Truex said. "But we all stuck together as a team. But this thing was three times harder to win than last year's, and I'm three times prouder of this team."
Truex survives setbacks
Truex, who will move up to Cup full-time next season, had to survive quite a bit of drama to become the first driver to win consecutive Busch Series titles since Chance 2 Motorsports team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. did it in 1998 and 1999.
First, the defending champion made his job tougher by crashing during his qualifying attempt Saturday afternoon. He had to switch to a backup car, which meant Truex was forced to start from the rear of the 43-car field.
"It was frustrating, but I didn't get down," he said. "I knew these guys would give us a great car. We just threw a setup at it, but I had confidence in the car. It's been a great race car.
"I was really happy we were able to race for it and nobody took that chance away from us. That's what I was worried about, starting from the back and having somebody else put us out."
Felt a vibration
Truex quickly made his way toward the front and was running in the top 10 when he began to feel a vibration. It became bad enough he pitted under the green flag on lap 59 to change the right rear tire. That left Truex a lap down in 31st place.
But the champion didn't stay there long. He again charged toward the front, got back on the lead lap with the help of a series of caution flags and again moved into the top 10, keeping Bowyer within sight most of the way.
"I don't know what happened," Bowyer said. "That was our worst race of the year. It just came at the wrong time."
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