Busch holds off Bodine for Chicagoland truck win

Autoracing Betting Lines

08/28/2010 - Joliet, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kyle Busch won his fourth consecutive NASCAR national touring series race by taking Friday night's EnjoyIllinois.com 225 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Busch, who won the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series races at Bristol last week, put on a dominating performance, but had to hold off a furious charge from pole sitter Todd Bodine in the closing laps to claim his fourth victory of the season and the 20th of his truck career.

"Todd ran me down and probably was going to pass me there, but I got a run on the outside, and I think he slipped a little bit," said Busch, who also won this race at Chicagoland last year.

Busch led a total of 121 laps, but had to charge from sixth to first after a late-race round of pit stops under caution. He passed Bodine with 24 laps remaining. Bodine chased him down shortly after and made several attempts to reclaim the lead.

The fifth caution for Timothy Peters' blown engine set up a green-white- checkered finish. Busch easily pulled away from Bodine after the final restart and then beat him at the finish by 0.19 seconds.

"Second stinks," Bodine jokingly said. "Right there at the end with Kyle, I had him on the outside, and he pinched me up into the wall, and then I had him on the inside, and I got loose going into [turn] three. It was good racing with him."

Busch is now tied with Bodine for fourth on the series' all-time race winners list.

Ron Hornaday Jr. finished third, followed by Johnny Sauter and Justin Lofton.

Aric Almirola, Matt Crafton, Rick Crawford, Austin Dillon and David Starr completed the top-10.

Bodine increased his lead to 236 points over Almirola with eight races remaining in the season.

Busch will attempt to win his fifth straight national touring race next Friday when the Truck Series competes at Kentucky Speedway.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.