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Darlington Raceway actually looked pretty easy to tame for Kyle Busch Friday night. Until two laps to go, at least.

Busch, who led all but 10 laps in the  Diamond Hill Plywood 200 Nationwide Series race at Darlington, suffered a flat tire and had to pit under caution while having the fastest car and while leading the race with those two laps remaining.

Matt Kenseth, who had won the pole for tonight’s Sprint Cup race earlier in the day, was there to grab the lead and then come away with the victory after the green-white-checkered restart.

Up to the misfortune at the end, Busch had dominated – he had led all but six laps.

With 10 laps to go, Matt Kenseth started closing ground on Busch.

It appeared Busch would be able to hold Kenseth off no problem but with two laps to go, Joe Nemechek crashed to bring out a caution and send the race to a green-white-checkered finish.

As the cars circled the track under yellow, the tire went down and Busch was done.

“It’s very frustrating,” Busch’s crew chief, Jason Ratcliff, said. “This is a track that is difficult already just to go out there and race the race track much less go out there and race 42 other cars.  We had a good car and Kyle (Busch) did a great job.  All the guys did a great job on pit road.  We were half a lap short of getting to the white flag and then it would have been over – didn’t make it.  I think we could have held him off there, but you have to have air in the right-rear (tire) to do it.” 

Jason Leffler was second on the final restart but never had a chance to challenge for the victory as Morgan Shepherd crashed on the restart and that ended the race.

Carl Edwards finished third and Erik Darnell was fourth.

Busch finished 16th. He kept his lead in the standings but second-place Edwards moved to just 37 back.

Leffler is 153 points back.

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Unofficial results of Friday’s Nationwide Series race at Darlington:

1. Matt Kenseth, No. 16 Ford

2. Jason Leffler, No. 38 Toyota

3. Carl Edwards, No. 60 Ford

4. Erik Darnell, No. 6 Ford

5. Justin Allgaier, No. 12 Dodge

6. Ryan Newman, No. 33 Chevrolet

7. Mike Bliss, No. 1 Chevrolet

8. Jeff Burton, No. 29 Chevrolet

9. Brian Vickers, No. 32 Toyota

10. Scott Wimmer, No. 5 Chevrolet

11. Brad Keselowski, No. 88 Chevrolet

12. Joey Logano, No. 20 Toyota

13. Steven Wallace, No. 66 Chevrolet

14. Jason Keller, No. 27 Ford

16. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota

17. Patrick Carpentier, No. 07 Toyota

18. Kenny Wallace, No. 28 Chevrolet

19. Brendan Gaughan, No. 62 Chevrolet

20. Scott Speed, No. 99 Toyota

21. Tony Raines, No. 234 Chevrolet

22. Scott Lagasse Jr., No. 11 Toyota

23. Jeff Green, No. 40 Chevrolet

24. Brian Keselowski, No. 26 Dodge

25. Kevin Hamlin, No. 81 Dodge

26. Brandon Whitt, No. 61 Ford

27. Danny O’Quinn Jr., No. 01 Chevrolet

28 Eric McClure, No. 24 Ford

29. Michael Annett, No. 15 Toyota

30. Robert Richardson Jr., No. 23 Chevrolet

31. Morgan Shepherd, No. 89 Chevrolet

32. Joe Nemechek, No. 87 Chevrolet

33. Michael McDowell, No. 47 Toyota

34. John Wes Townley, No. 09 Ford

35. Kevin Lepage, No. 52 Ford

36. Kenny Hendrick, No. 42 Dodge

37. Mike Harmon, No. 84 Chevrolet

38. Travis Kittleson, No. 31 Chevrolet

39. Mark Green, No. 0 Chevrolet

40. Kertus Davis, No. 49 Chevrolet

41. Terry Cook, No. 91 Chevrolet

42. Johnny Chapman, No. 90 Chevrolet

43. Casey Atwood, No. 05 Chevrolet

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