Stenhouse Jr. grabs fifth win, series points lead

JOLIET, Ill. — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. edged past Kyle Busch and into the lead, then held on for the final 20 laps for a relatively easy victory.

Perhaps more importantly, he left Elliott Sadler even farther behind — and took over the Nationwide Series points lead for the first time since the beginning of June.

Stenhouse raced to his fifth Nationwide victory of the year, outlasting Busch on Saturday at Chicagoland Speedway. Once Stenhouse passed Busch on the 180th lap, there wasn’t much anyone could do to catch him. Stenhouse, the 2011 series champion, gave up the points lead to Sadler on June 2, but now he finally has it back.

“We knew if we won coming in here to Chicago that we would leave the points leader, and that is what it is all about,” Stenhouse said. “It is going to be tough as you can see. Elliott was up front as well and he runs good at every racetrack we have left as well. It is going to be a lot of fun.”

Stenhouse has won two of the last four races — and finished second in the other two. He finished 2.402 seconds ahead of Busch. Austin Dillon was third, followed by Brad Keselowski and Paul Menard.

“I feel like we’ve got good momentum, but in this business and this sport, anything can change at any time,” Stenhouse said. “You’ve got to keep your guard up. We’ve got to keep not making mistakes.”

Sadler, who led Stenhouse by a point atop the standings coming into the race, finished eighth. Pole winner Joey Logano was another spot back in ninth.

It’s Stenhouse’s seventh win in 99 Nationwide starts. Busch, the career victory leader in this series, was trying for his 52nd victory. It would have also been his first win in the series for the team he owns. Busch and his brother, Kurt, have teamed up this year as co-drivers for Kyle Busch Motorsports on the Nationwide circuit, with Kurt Busch winning at Richmond.