Busch blows away field at Cabela’s 250

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 in Brooklyn, Mich.

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.

“Kyle Busch was just in another league,” said Martin, a longtime Cup star who started last in the 43-car field in his first Busch race since 2000. “He put it on us really bad, but I’m still pleased we were able to beat all those guys behind us.

“Even getting beat like that, it’s a relief. I was afraid I’d come back and not uphold the tradition of what we’d done in the Busch Series,” added Martin, the career series victory leader with 45.

Series leader Martin Truex Jr., who led only the first 22 laps after starting from the pole, finished third but saw his lead over Busch cut from 117 to 97.

Honda qualifying washed out

Tony Kanaan was disappointed after his team landed four of the top six spots for the Honda 225 at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, Colo. 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 left.

“It’s a shame we didn’t get to qualify because I think it could have been one, two, three, four,” said Kanaan. 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.

Johnson, Gordon rivalry heating up

Jeff Gordon is Jimmie Johnson’s teammate, mentor, friend and the co-owner of his car — he’s also one of the guys trying to beat out Johnson for the NASCAR Nextel Cup championship. Going into today’s GFS Marketplace 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich., Gordon trails Johnson by just 40 points at the top of the standings.

Gordon has been through this before, racing Hendrick Motorsports teammate Terry Labonte heads-up for the 1996 title, and losing by 37 points.

“I wasn’t as close to Terry as I am to Jimmie,” Gordon said. “We had just come off a championship the year before and there was definitely some heavy rivalry going on within the organization. It got very intense.”

“There’s a lot of competition there, but the most important thing is that we respect each other through all the competition,” Johnson said. “And, regardless of how it turns out, we’re still going to be teammates at the end of it. We’re still going to be friends.”