Kyle Busch proves fast learner at Lenox 300

~ The second-year driver climbed to fourth in the point standings with his first win of the season.

LOUDON, N.H. -- Kyle Busch learned some hard lessons last year as a rookie in NASCAR's Nextel Cup series.

He put some of that knowledge to good use Sunday at New Hampshire International Speedway on the way to his first victory of the season.

"We're just trying to bide our time, making our own race and trying to get it to the end in one piece," Busch said. "Two weeks ago, we finished second [in Daytona] and last week we finished third [at Chicago]. We're just running our race out there and letting everybody else make their mistakes."

A year ago, Busch was the best rookie in NASCAR's top stock car series and had two victories, but the driver who is now 21 years old wound up a disappointing 20th in the season points and had as many bad results as good ones.

"Last year, we made the mistake of worrying too much about what other teams were doing," Busch said. "We kind of lost touch with what we were needing to do. Now we don't worry about anybody else during the race. We just worry about our own race car."

That was evident Sunday as Busch drove hard and avoided the problems that brought out 11 caution flags and caused trouble for several of the top contenders.

Busch passed Elliott Sadler on lap 240 and appeared to have the third victory of his career all wrapped up before a crash involving Hendrick Motorsports teammate Brian Vickers and rookie Clint Bowyer brought out a caution flag on lap 298, just three laps from the scheduled end of the Lenox Industrial Tools 300.

With a number of drivers concerned about running out of the fuel even before the extra laps, including Sadler, the race was extended even longer when Michael Waltrip ran into the back of Robby Gordon on lap 303.

The last restart finally came on lap 307. By that time, both rookie Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards had moved past Sadler, but Busch easily pulled away from the challengers in the two-lap sprint to the finish.

Edwards dove past Hamlin for second place on the final lap and Hamlin then appeared to run out of gas, fading all the way to sixth as Greg Biffle, Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick all drove past on the final straightaway.

"I had a car I thought could win," said Hamlin, who earned his first Cup victory in June at Pocono. "Kyle was getting real tight, but I had to save fuel and I spun my tires real bad on the restart. Then the thing sputtered in the first turn on that last lap and I knew I was through."

Sadler ran out of gas on the final restart and wound up 25th, the last driver on the lead lap.

The 21-year-old Busch was positioned for the victory when crew chief Alan Gustafson brought the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in for a gas-only pit stop during a caution period on lap 211.

Busch, the younger brother of 2003 Cup champion Kurt Busch, restarted seventh when the green flag waved on lap 215 and worked his way steadily to the front. Sadler inherited the lead, with Busch right behind him, when they stayed on track while the drivers in front of them pitted during another caution on lap 235.

The restart came on lap 238 and it took Busch -- who led a race-high 107 laps -- just three laps to get around Sadler. He led the rest of the way.

"I asked Alan on that last pit stop if we were OK on gas if we went extra laps," Busch said. "He said it would be fine, but all off a sudden they're telling me, 'Save gas! Save gas! Save gas!' I wasn't sure what to think."

It turned out he had enough gas to finish the race and do some smoking victory burnouts for the sellout crowd estimated at 101,000 that turned out despite temperatures in the low 90s.

It looks like only the top 10 drivers in the standings will make the Chase for the championship and the top of the standings were scrambled on the hot, sticky day filled with crashes.

Jimmie Johnson remained in the top spot with a ninth-place finish, moving from 51 to 68 points ahead of runner-up Matt Kenseth, who finished 14th.

Tony Stewart, the defending Cup and race champion, got the worst of it, falling from seventh to 11th with only seven races remaining before the start of the Chase. Stewart hit the wall on lap 91 after being bumped by pole-starter Ryan Newman and wound up 37th in the 43-car field.

Dale Earnhardt was in the top five when he had an engine failure that relegated him to last and knocked him from third to seventh, while Biffle moved into a tie for ninth with Jeff Gordon, who started the day alone in 10th and finished 15th in the race despite being involved in at least two on-track incidents with other cars.

The race winner, who did not make the Chase last year when he won Rookie of the Year honors and finished 20th in the points, moved all the way from eighth to fourth in the standings.