Lady Luck smiles on Busch in Carquest Auto Parts 300

Kyle Busch needed a bit of good fortune to take the lead late in Saturday’s Carquest Auto Parts 300 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.H.

Then he just made sure he had enough gas to hold on.

The rookie went ahead when leader Joe Nemechek lost control with 18 laps to go, then pulled away before winning under caution. It was his second win in his last three NASCAR Busch Series races.

Busch finished second in this race last year in his Busch debut, falling behind Matt Kenseth on a late restart. This time, Busch benefited from the late caution on Nemechek’s spinout to save gas for a final push to the checkered flag.

Busch won under caution after Tony Raines hit the wall with two laps to go.

“I just kept watching the fuel gauge making sure we were all right,” Busch said. “We were doing pretty good and saving fuel on those last cautions.”

Several of the leaders were apparently low enough on gas that they drove on the apron during the last caution to avoid the banked turns, which could slosh gas away from the intake and stall the car.

Jamie McMurray finished second, followed by Kevin Harvick, Jason Leffler and Tony Stewart.

Nemechek fell to sixth after spinning out into the grassy infield before charging back to challenge McMurray for second. But he ran out of gas with four laps to go and finished a disappointing 21st.

“Well, I think it’s just kind of our luck right now,” Nemechek said. “We drove from the back to the front, and I was just conserving gas. Coming off (Turn) 4, it just turned around. I couldn’t save it.”

Pole-sitter Greg Biffle led the first 21 laps, but couldn’t keep control. He gradually fell off the pace, falling to 13th around lap 120 after a pit during the day’s sixth caution. He finished sixth.

Harvick and Stewart each had early setbacks that forced them to spend a lot of time weaving their way through traffic from the back of the field.

Harvick was in second heading into pit during the second caution of the day, but the left rear tire rolled away from a crewman as Harvick pulled away and officials sent Harvick to the back.

Stewart, meanwhile, had trouble with a left front shock around lap 40 that forced him to pit twice.

Schumacher grabs pole

Michael Schumacher rebounded from last week’s crash to capture the pole position for the European Grand Prix in Nuerburgring, Germany, the 60th pole of his career.

Schumacher, whose season-opening five-race winning streak ended at the Monaco Grand Prix, is closing in on Ayrton Senna’s record of 65 poles. This was the fifth pole of the season for the six-time Formula One champion .

“There is always some extra motivation from the fans at a home race,” the German driver said. “It is also good to be racing so soon after Monaco to put that disappointment behind me.”

Schumacher was timed in 1 minute, 28.351 seconds on Saturday on the 3.2-mile Nuerburgring circuit, and had the best times in each sector by a large margin.

Takuma Sato of BAR-Honda was second in 1:28.896, and Jarno Trulli of Renault third at 1;29.135.