Joe Gibbs Driven

The only thing Busch didn't accomplish at ORP was winning the pole.

"I feel those 15 horsepower cost me the pole." Busch said. "I really want to thank all of my competitors out there for the complaining they did, because they gave me some good traction control tonight."

It was the first race since NASCAR made the rule change to reduce the Toyota engine by 15 horsepower to even the competition in the series. Toyota has won 15 of 22 races in the series this year.

The victory was Busch's sixth of the season and 17th of his NASCAR Nationwide Series career.

It was a record-setting night for Busch in NASCAR.

Busch collected his 15th combined victory in NASCAR's top three series this year. He broke a tie with Kevin Harvick, who recorded a total of 14 wins in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Craftsman Truck Series in 2006.

He gave JGR its record-setting 14th Nationwide victory this season. Richard Childress Racing posted 13 wins in the series last year.

And Busch also set the record for most laps led in a Nationwide event at ORP. Randy LaJoie previously held the track record when he led a total of 172 laps to win the Kroger 200 in 1997.

Busch ran out in front from the get-go. Colin Braun won the pole earlier in the day, but elected to start second. Busch led the field to the green and was unstoppable from there.

His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Joey Logano, experienced communication issues in the opening laps when he could not hear his spotter. Logano's team immediately corrected the problem.

Mike Bliss spun on Lap 21 to put the race under caution for the first time. Carl Edwards had to make a lengthy pit stop during the caution to repair a faulty oil cooler. Edwards went a lap down. He pitted for more work on the car during the next caution, an incident involving Danny Efland and Brett Rowe, several laps later. Edwards fell three laps behind in 37th-place.

But Edwards patiently made his way back onto the lead lap after his three-lap deficit. The seventh caution on Lap 170 allowed Edwards to receive the "lucky dog" pass. He was up to 23rd on the restart with 27 laps remaining. Edwards charged through the field and ended up with an 11th-place finish.

"We had an oil cooler leak or something," Edwards said. "Man, I'd give anything if this thing were another 100 laps."

Busch was stout on all of his restarts, especially after the fifth caution period for Travis Kittleson's accident. When the race resumed on Lap 149, Busch jumped out to an almost one-second lead over Braun in just one lap.

As night-time approached and the track temperature cooled off, Jason Leffler's Toyota and Mike Bliss' Chevrolet performed much better as they moved up in the field. Bliss started 17th, but had climbed up to sixth by Lap 100. After starting 11th, Leffler had jumped into the top-five at the mid-way point.

Debris from David Stremme's car put the caution flag out for the third time, setting up a round of pit stops. Busch was the quickest off of pit road, followed by Braun and Cale Gale.

Leffler, meanwhile, had to restart from the tail end of the lead lap after he was caught speeding on pit road. He never recovered and ended up finishing 16th. Bliss continued his pursuit towards the front.

Bliss finished third, with Scott Wimmer and Josh Wise rounding out the top- five.

Clint Bowyer now holds a 173-point lead over Brad Keselowski in the championship standings after finishing 18th. Keselowski came in 19th. Edwards moved to within 180 points.

The series heads to Canada next Saturday at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.