Kyle Busch salutes the fans after winning the Dollar General 300 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Busch extended his points lead over Carl Edwards to 195 points. (Photo: Getty Images)

CONCORD - Assurances abound that the Toyota driven by Kyle Busch was operating under the same set of rules as the other 42 cars going around and around Lowe’s Motor Speedway at various times on Friday night.

You couldn’t prove it by the competition in the Dollar General 300, though.

Busch’s Toyota throttled the Nationwide Series field. Busch beat them like eggs. He picked them up and laid them down. It was man against boys.

"This thing was on a rail," said Busch. "This is one great race car."

Comparing Kyle Busch’s Nationwide Series victories on degree of domination is like comparing snowflakes on degree of difference. Suffice it to say that he’s won seven times, and the vast majority of his margins were comfortable.

Crossing the finish line behind Busch, distantly, were Mike Bliss, Dave Blaney and Brian Vickers, all, like the winner, piloting Toyotas. Busch led 137 out of 200 laps around the 1.5-mile track.

A significant, and fairly spectacular, crash occurred on the front straight at lap 12, with the cars driven by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Brad Keselowski and Reed Sorenson tangling. Stenhouse’s Ford bore the brunt of the damage.

Keselowski recovered from the mishap to finish sixth.

Matt Kenseth had taken the lead at the outset, but after the early crash, Kyle Busch assumed control. In fact, he made a mockery of the race, stretching his edge to more than five seconds by the end of the 55th lap. The Ford drivers who had started up front, Kenseth and Carl Edwards, had slipped to third and eighth, respectively. Kasey Kahne, meanwhile, had moved into second.

The second multi-car crash, on lap 63, was a rather extreme example of aggressiveness on the part of David Gilliland, who charged into a four-wide tangle near turn one. Asked to describe the affair, one of the casualties, Steven Wallace, said the wreck was caused by "a washed-up Cup driver," meaning Gilliland.

Another gaudy crash occurred on lap 69 involving Erik Darnell, Joey Logano, Kenseth, Jason Leffler, John Wes Townley, Ken Butler and others.

By lap 87, Busch was back in the lead, having dusted off Jeff Burton’s Chevy and roared away again.

Busch boosted his Nationwide Series point lead to 195 points over fifth-place finisher Carl Edwards.

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