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The No. 18 team tried, but Kyle Busch & Co. didn't have what it took to contend at Indy.

INDIANAPOLIS -- News flash: Kyle Busch never had a shot at winning Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Yes, that is news these days.

Although he led twice for 14 laps, the points leader who came into the day with a series-high seven wins never was a factor at the 2.5-mile track. He started 19th and finished 15th, only the fifth time in 20 races he has finished worse than 13th.

That he struggled so mightily after winning the past two races, at Daytona and Chicagoland, and three of the past four might have been the biggest news story outside of the tire situation that turned the event into a series of 12-lap heat races.

Or as Busch so politely called the tire trouble, "Stupid."

"We just had to do what we could in order to do that," he said of enduring the tire wear problems.

The situation was so dire that Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, said there were enough tires for another nine laps before they would have turned to the Pocono tires trucked in overnight as backups.

It was so dire that Pemberton gave up his normal seat in the control tower to monitor the situation from the garage.

"I've never walked so much during a race," he said. "I'm tired."

Busch was tired, as well. Tired of watching winner Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and a handful of other drivers battle for the lead while he struggled to stay in the top 10.

"You're trying to do what you can," he said. "I think the 48 [Johnson] took four tires pretty much the whole day and then just took two there at the end. He got out front and checked out.

"The 48 and the 24 [Gordon] had the field covered. They would just pull out and pass and clear and pull back in line before we would get to the next corner."

Busch's crew chief, Steve Addington, was equally frustrated.

"That was a sorry excuse for a race," he said.

The frustration was made worse by a pit road incident at the end when, according to Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. "ran over one of my guys and shoved him under the car."

That cost Busch valuable track position and left him with no shot at his 14th top-10 of the year.

"We had to wait for him to climb back out before we could drop the jack, and that just killed our day," Busch said. "We were just trying to get out of the pits quickly and try to get some spots with the two-tire stop there. It just wasn't meant to be.

"It was a top-15, and we'll go on."

Busch is almost a lock to go into the 10-race Chase with the points lead. He has 50 more bonus points for wins than Johnson and Edwards, who would have to win the next six races to overtake him.

But he has to be feeling the heat from Johnson. The two-time defending champion seemed to have victory in hand at Chicagoland before Busch beat him on the green-white-checkered finish.

JJ has finished in the top 10 for six of the past eight races.

As Busch's former boss, Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick said, Johnson has his mojo going.

Busch has had his going almost all season, which made Sunday's subpar performance newsworthy.

"I give Kyle a lot of credit," Hendrick said. "He's got an awesome amount of talent. He's matured, and he deserves what he's getting."

Busch didn't like what he got Sunday, and rightfully so with the kind of season he's had.

"It was not a very fun day for us," he said. "But hopefully Pocono will go better, and if not then, hopefully we can get back going sometime."

-- David Newton

Nationwide Series: Busch wins again, but Edwards shows mettle

CLERMONT, Ind. -- Sure Kyle Busch made it look easy -- again -- while leading 197 of 200 laps in Saturday night's Kroger 200 Nationwide Series race at O'Reilly Raceway Park. But chances are it wouldn't have looked nearly that easy if not for an early-race oil cooler issue that dropped Carl Edwards far off the pace.

Edwards systematically worked his way back onto the lead lap, but by the time he got there, it was far too late to mount any sort of threat for the win, which was probably a relief for Busch. Edwards had the only car all night that could really run with Busch's, and by night's end, it was clear why Busch had worked so hard when Edwards was three laps down to try to keep him there.

Twice Edwards got by Busch to regain laps the old-fashioned way, then he took advantage of the free pass to return to the lead lap. If not for Edwards' early problems, it's quite possible the story of the night would have been about how the midweek rules change NASCAR made had finally been what it took to keep Joe Gibbs Racing out of Victory Lane.

"[We came up] a little short. It's just like anything in this world; you try as hard as you can. That's what we did tonight," Edwards said. "We had an oil cooler leak into something, but man, I'd give anything if this thing was about 100 laps longer. I was having fun. It's just too bad. I felt like we had the fastest car."

The true impact of the rule change, which cost the Toyotas approximately 15 horsepower, might not be known until the Nationwide Series goes to Michigan later this month. The next two races are at road courses in Montreal and Watkins Glen and although horsepower certainly matters still, it's not necessarily the main ingredient that separates the winner from the losers.

Speaking of winners, the night likely didn't feel like much of a victory to points leader Clint Bowyer, who struggled down the stretch and finished 18th. The thing is, thanks to Edwards' problems and a 19th-place finish by Brad Keselowski, Bowyer actually increased his lead by three points and now has a 173-point edge over Keselowski.

Edwards managed to shave 21 points off his deficit to Bowyer, and the defending series champion is now 180 points behind with 13 races to go. David Reutimann finished 26th and is 290 points behind Bowyer in fourth, pretty much leaving it a three-driver race for the title, assuming Keselowski or Edwards can make a run at Bowyer.

-- Mark Ashenfelter

Craftsman Truck Series: Benson, Hornaday put on show of strength at ORP

CLERMONT, Ind. -- For most of Friday night at O'Reilly Raceway Park, Ron Hornaday was driving by far the best truck. Until Johnny Benson was.

This can now be called a pattern in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Hornaday led two long stints at ORP for 153 of the 200 laps, but Benson paced 43 -- including the last 39 -- to win for the third time in his past four starts. The one race he didn't win in that time, Hornaday won. Hornaday, the defending champion from Kevin Harvick Inc., also won twice earlier in the season.

Benson and Hornaday have three wins apiece, and only 15 points separate them in the standings, with Benson's Bill Davis Racing Toyota currently holding serve.

"There's no way anyone has their hands on it. No one has a handle on it right now," Benson said.

Holding off Hornaday for four restarts is no small feat, but Benson did that Friday. The two ran 1-2 while mayhem ensued behind them after a quiet first half of the race.

Matt Crafton, still in the championship conversation at 31 points back of Benson, earned a hard-fought fourth in a ThorSport Racing Chevrolet that was in danger of being lapped by Hornaday during the No. 33 Chevrolet's dominant first half. Crafton also inadvertently helped widen the gap between the leaders and the chasers in the standings.

2006 champion Todd Bodine came into the night 111 points out in sixth place but left 204 points out, still in sixth, after a late accident kicked off with a nudge from Crafton.

"I got loose and ran into him," Crafton said. "I feel horrible about it; that's not the way I race."

Fourth- and fifth-place drivers Rick Crawford and Mike Skinner also stayed in their respective positions in the standings but lost more points to the lead. Crawford, in the No. 14 Circle Bar Racing Ford, faded to 14th late in the race. Skinner, still unable to find the speed of teammate Benson this season, was lapped by Hornaday on Lap 83. He eventually got the lap back under caution and finished 10th -- decent, but not nearly good enough with the pace Benson and Hornaday are setting.

"It's good to be mad you finished second," said Rick Ren, crew chief for the Hornaday's No. 33. "I'm looking at the big picture, and it was a good night."

-- John Schwarb