Loudon clear

LOUDON, N.H. - Kyle Busch still has a baby face.

He still tells a joke with an awkward, insecure laugh.

He still looks comfortable sporting a hat with Frosted Flakes cereal pitchman Tony the Tiger on the front.

Yet he's maturing, at least on the race track.

The 21-year-old held on for a green-white-checkered victory Sunday in the Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Busch became a championship contender in the process. He's finished second, third and first in his last three races to move into the top-five in the points standings, 334 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

"It's unbelievable at his age how he's matured," said Rick Hendrick, Busch's car owner. "He's always amazed us with the amount of talent he has, but he's learning everything else in a hurry. We have to remind him some times, but he knows."

Busch reminded his NASCAR Nextel Cup peers of his maturity Sunday. He avoided traffic trouble in Loudon's tricky corners and, along with his crew, executed flawless pit strategy.

Busch got a good jump on the field on the green-white-checkered restart and finished several car lengths ahead of runner-up Carl Edwards.

Greg Biffle finished third, followed by Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick. Denny Hamlin, who was second behind Busch on the final restart, ran low on gas during the extra laps and faded to sixth place.

Jeff Burton finished seventh, Kasey Kahne eighth, Johnson ninth and Scott Riggs 10th.

The 300-lap race went 308 laps because Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers crashed on the backstretch on Lap 298. While track crews were cleaning up the wreck, Michael Waltrip's car suffered a mechanical failure, further delaying the restart.

Several cars ran out of gas on the extra laps, including frontrunners Hamlin and Elliott Sadler. Sadler faded from fourth to 30th.

Busch was low on fuel as well. His last pit stop came on Lap 211, and he asked crew chief Alan Gustafson during the stop if he would have enough gas for extra laps.

"He said 'Yeah, we'll be OK,' but we didn't expect it to go that many extra laps," Busch said. "You never really say to yourself 'Is this race ever going to get over with?'. You just say 'Let's go green. Let's go green. We'll get a checkered if we can just go green.'"

The eight extra laps is the most since NASCAR instituted the green-white-checkered rule during the 2004 season.

"NASCAR kept going and going and going," Burton said. "Red flag it or something. I can't believe they kept going."

Busch's run made the inordinate amount of extra laps moot. His car was among the fastest all day. He led five times for 107 laps, including the final 69. He slipped out the top-10 just once, pitting under green on Lap 184 only to have a caution flag come out four laps later.

He reclaimed the lead by Lap 200.

"That's a mean machine right there," Gustafson said of Busch's No. 5 Chevrolet. "That car's won two races and gotten six top-fives and an eighth place. We're looking forward to bring that one back in the Chase."

Busch's car even has a nickname: The Punisher. The team built the car special to hug the tight, flat corners at tracks like Loudon. Two of Busch's career Nextel Cup wins have come in the car - the other win was last fall at Phoenix, another flat, one-mile track - and he finished second in The Punisher last July at Loudon.

The driver likes the car so much he had the team build a twin. It too has a nickname: Twisted Sister.

"Those are the only two cars we have with names," Busch said with an awkward chuckle. "I don't know why. You'd have to ask (Gustafson). I don't come up with the nicknames."

He's getting too mature for that.

Reach reporter Adam Van Brimmer at 404-589-8424 or adam.vanbrimmer@morris.com.