Victory Lane has become as familiar to Kyle Busch as the view of his fender has become to his racing opponents.
Busch was back in well-known territory Saturday night, taking his seventh Sprint Cup series race of the season by winning the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.
Under the lights for the first time at the Speedway, the points leader was invincible this weekend, also winning the Nationwide race Friday night in Joliet.
It did not come without a little late-race anxiety.
Busch led for most of the race but relinquished his lead with 17 laps to go when Jimmie Johnson passed him. Johnson, the points champion last season, had not led until he sped by Busch, who had led for 163 laps.
The race was under caution with three laps to go, and after the restart Busch reclaimed the lead on the final lap and a half.
Johnson finished second, followed by Kevin Harvick.
The celebration turned embarrassing when Busch’s car got stuck in the infield doing doughnuts.
The time before the race was filled with uncertainty as Saturday evening approached. Already, as the Sprint Cup awaited its first night race at Chicagoland, that issue had been much discussed as drivers wondered about the track’s nature and appearance under the lights.
But as brightness marched toward darkness, there was even more to play with their minds. There was wind. There were mountains of clouds. There was a threat of rain. Each of these was another variable and, with their appearances, they simply upped the ante on the demands drivers could confront.
Just a day earlier, as if anticipating this moment, Hendrick’s Johnson had reflected on a driver’s approach under these conditions.
“As time goes on,” he said, “we just learn how to adjust and anticipate what things will be like.
“I would assume that a lot of guys will have the philosophy that you would in the 600-mile race that we have and the track changing and have spring rubbers and a lot of adjustments that you can change quickly on a pit stop built into the cars. But we’re all learning.”
The clouds were gone, the wind was still up, any thought of rain was past and the stands were full when Joe Gibbs’ Busch, the pole-sitter and the series’ hottest driver, finally kicked this one off by leading the field to the green flag. He had been booed lustily minutes earlier when introduced, but here he simply operated with the cool efficiency that has characterized his season.
He quite simply pulled away from the field and, quicker than a hiccup, opened up a lead of nearly two seconds in the opening 35 laps. But here, with the track made green by recent rains, came a competition caution ordered by NASCAR and into the pits came all the cars so their tires could be checked.
Busch was still in the lead after this stop, but quickly he was reeled in by Roush Fenway’s Carl Edwards and fell to second. Then, 49 laps into this one’s 267, came another caution and now some cars pitted and some cars didn’t and the lead started to change hands constantly.
Jeff Gordon held it and then Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart held it and then Matt Kenseth, and through all this shuffling Busch was behind them struggling, once falling all the way to 10th. Then came another caution, another series of pit stops and, at its finish, there was Busch in front again.
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smyslenski@tribune.com
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