CLERMONT, Ind. — Jason Leffler has several important victories at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, but none as big as his triumph in Saturday night’s NASCAR Busch Series race.
In front of an estimated crowd of 40,000, Leffler handed Toyota its first series victory in the 26th annual Kroger 200 by rubbing fellow Camry driver David Reutimann the wrong way.
Leffler, winner of two USAC Silver Crown and five USAC midget races at ORP (1998-2003), finished ahead of Nextel Cup competitors Greg Biffle, Reutimann and Carl Edwards. He led only the last three laps in claiming his second-career victory in the series.
Toyota became a winner in the series in its 21st NBS race after two runner-up finishes and four third-place finishes, collectively. A Camry has yet to be driven to victory in Nextel Cup competition. However, the Tundra won four races in its first season in NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series in 2004.
“We’re real excited at Braun Racing to be the first team to bring Camry to victory lane,” Leffler said. “I knew this (win) would come soon. I’m glad for the team and that it’s our names that are going in the record book.”
Leffler and crew chief Todd Lohse gambled and the crew put on four new tires during a pit stop under caution on lap 97. They dropped from third to 11th while most of the leaders took on fuel only.
Leffler passed Reutimann for second with only 12 laps to go in a heated battle.
“I got in the corners and he (Leffler) ran all over me,” Reutimann said. “That got my car loose, and he turned into me and did the same thing again.”
Leffler didn’t quite see it that way, although he admitted to “roughing up” Reutimann’s Camry while they were racing side by side.
“He (Reutimann) could have crashed me after that and obviously he chose not to,” Leffler said. “I knew he wasn’t going to catch Biffle. I could smell the victory, and I had to get to that checkered flag.”
Leffler put his Camry nose barely ahead of Biffle’s 3M Ford at the line on lap 198 on the .686-mile oval.
Roush teammates, runner-up Biffle and fourth-place Edwards, seemed happy to be racing on the night before the Brickyard 400.
They were among five drivers who were shuttled to ORP via helicopters from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where they later qualified for the Brickyard 400. Mark Green qualified for Reutimann, Eric Darnell for David Ragan, Travis Kvapil for Edwards, Kertus Davis for J.J. Yeley and Brandon Miller for Scott Wimmer.
Biffle qualified and led 94 laps of the final 98 laps, seven more than Busch pole winner Aric Almirola led earlier in the Rockwell Chevrolet.
“The car was really, really tough to drive,” Biffle said. “To be honest with you, I don’t know how we did so well. Track position was a lot of it. It was a good night and I had a lot of fun.”
Edwards, who started near the rear of the 43-car field, finished fourth and extended his series lead to 852 points over Reutimann. Leffler jumped from fifth to third in points.
“That was a fun race track, but we were just too loose,” Edwards said. “We had too many restarts.”
Rounding out the top 10 were fifth-place Ron Hornaday, Jr., Almirola, Wimmer, Kevin Hamlin, Mike Bliss and rookie Brad Keselowski.
Two-time race winner Jason Keller finished 11th in his 14th Kroger 200 start, one less than the record held by Tommy Houston. Three-time race winner Morgan Shepherd, 65, started 33rd and finished 40th in a Dodge.