Busch starts last, but comes back to win

Kyle Busch took the lead with two laps to go and held on to win the Meijer 300 on Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway for his third Busch Series victory of the year.

The 19-year-old Busch, the brother of Nextel Cup driver Kurt Busch, started from the back of the 43-car field after wrecking his car in practice.

Busch qualified second Friday, but wrecked his Chevrolet during a post-qualifying practice session. Because he used his backup car Saturday, he had to start at the back of the field.

By the 47th lap, Busch had moved into the top 10. He slowly worked his way through the rest of the field, and with 13 laps to go, on a restart after a late caution, he was third behind Greg Biffle and Jason Leffler.

After passing Leffler, Busch ducked under Biffle for the lead with two laps left. Busch won by 1.274 seconds over Biffle, who has won three Busch Series races this year. Mike Bliss finished third, followed by Ron Hornaday Jr. and Jason Keller.

Busch, who averaged 126.633 mph, remained second in the series points race behind Martin Truex Jr., but closed the gap from 40 to 10 points. Truex finished sixth Saturday.

Hamilton wins trucks race

Bobby Hamilton took the lead with eight laps left and held off Shane Hmiel by 0.423 seconds Saturday to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ O’Reilly 200 at Millington, Tenn.

Hmiel, a first-time series starter on the 0.75-mile Memphis Motorsports Park track, lost a half-second lead when Rick Crawford’s 187th-lap spin brought out a caution flag.

The 47-year-old Hamilton took the lead with an outside pass on the second lap after the restart en route to his second victory of the season and sixth overall on the truck series.

“He (Hmiel) got loose coming off Turn 2 a little bit and halfway down the straightaway it looked like he thought the caution came out or something,” Hamilton said. “I had made my up my mind to work on the outside on the last lap anyhow.”

The Tennessee driver’s son, Bobby Jr., won Memphis Motorsports Park’s Busch Series race last October.

Hamilton started third in his Dodge.

Defending race winner Ted Musgrave finished third, followed by series points leader Dennis Setzer, Carl Edwards, Matt Crafton, pole-starter Jack Sprague, Jon Wood and Chad Chaffin.

There were six lead changes among four drivers Hamilton, Hmiel, Musgrave and Sprague.

Barrichello rallies to take pole

Michael Schumacher set the target midway through Saturday’s U.S. Grand Prix qualifying. Rubens Barrichello tore past it in a flash.

Barrichello made up a 0.2-second deficit over the final two-thirds of Indianapolis’ 2.605-mile road course, beating Schumacher’s qualifying time by 0.177 seconds to claim the pole for today’s U.S. Grand Prix.

The winning run also came as a relief to Barrichello, a Brazilian best known as Ferrari’s other driver. He earned the 10th pole of his career and his first since October in Japan with a time of 1 minute, 10.223 seconds.

Barrichello’s move Saturday wasn’t a total surprise. He had been fastest in three of the four practice sessions on the 13-turn road course, then set a new track record with a time of 1:09.454 during pre-qualifying. The previous record, 1:09.566, was set last year by Italy’s Jarno Trulli.

But even as Barrichello posted the best times and moved into position as the pole favorite before qualifying, everyone seemed to be waiting for Schumacher.

When he finally got on to the track, Schumacher moved into his customary position – at the front of the field. The six-time world champion glided through the turns, finishing in 1:10.400. The truth was, Schumacher, of Germany, was fighting with the car’s handling.

“I just slid around too much, couldn’t keep it on the track on the proper line,” he said.

The rare problem opened the door for eight drivers still waiting to qualify.

Three had a chance to supplant Schumacher. Japan’s Takuma Sato finished in 1:10.601 and England’s Jenson Button completed his lap in 1:10.820. Sato and Button, teammates for BAR Honda, will start third and fourth in Row 2 – just behind the two Ferrari teammates.

Two others also were expected to challenge Schumacher after running quicker than 1:10 in pre-qualifying. Neither France’s Olivier Panis nor Colombia’s Juan Pablo Montoya could duplicate their efforts when it mattered most.

Panis, of Panasonic Toyota, finished in 1:11.167 and will start eighth. Montoya, of the BMW Williams team, will start fifth after going 1:11.062.