Busch Pushed To Talladega Truck Win

October 31, 2009 11:42 p.m. EST

Talladega, AL (AHN) - Kyle Busch didn't make The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this season so he's trying to do the next best thing - win the Nationwide Series championship and as many Camping World Truck Series races as he can. Saturday Busch notched his sixth Truck win of the season when Billy Ballew Motorsports teammate Aric Almirola pushed Busch past Todd Bodine in the final quarter-mile to win the Mountain Dew 250 at Talladega Superspeedway. "That just happened - unbelievable. I owe everything to Aric Almirola today. Sticking with me from that last pit stop to the end, I told him if he just stayed with me they wouldn't be able to beat the 15 (Almirola) and 51 (Busch). Awesome job to Aric (Almirola), he can take my half of the pay after today. I don't get paid anything. I don't know what Billy Ballew will work out with him,'' said Busch. "What an awesome truck - this Miccosukee Tundra was great today. The guys did an awesome job building it. You can only go as fast as what it's built from the shop so obviously a lot of work went into this thing. Toyota clinched the manufacturer's championship - that's awesome. There was a few moments that maybe got a hairy and a little sketchy, but overall it worked out in the end for us so that's awesome.'' The race saw a green-white-checkered finish after a 11-truck melee was triggered by Bodine, Mike Skinner and Johnny Sauter on Lap 91. Caught up in the melee was points leader Ron Hornaday Jr., who finished 17th. Matt Crafton, who finished trimmed and sits second in the points, trimmed Hornaday's points lead to 202. "That sucked really. The No. 30 cost us both the race. That is all there was too it, just chasing me up the race track and trying to stall me. He stalled me and him and gave the race to the No. 51,'' said Crafton of Bodine. "If he would have just raced and let us both go the start/finish line nose to tail, we would have been one-two. I don't have any idea why he did what he did. He killed us both. Oh well. It is Talladega and we have a good piece for Daytona." Almirola ran second and was followed across the finish line by Terry Cook, David Starr, Mario Gosselin, Stacy Compton, Dennis Setzer, Justin Hobgood and Crafton. Toyota swept the top five places and clinched the series manufacturers championship. "We got used to winning for sure. We made the right move - we had a great truck and made the right move at the end and got the lead. We just didn't have a teammate. Kyle (Busch) had his teammate right behind him. I could have blocked him coming to the checkers, but I didn't want to be like Carl Edwards and end up in the catch fence,'' said Bodine. "With Kyle (Busch), that's what would have happened - he's a racer and you can't blame him for that. It was a great day for Billy Ballew Motorsports with a one-two finish. Our Germain Copart Tundra was fast, it was again the best truck and it drove fantastic. We just ended up third. There's nothing you can do but be happy with it and we had a good day.'' As for the first father-daughter duo to start a major NASCAR touring series race, Chrissy Wallace finished 13th and her father Mike Wallace ran 28th.