CLERMONT, Ind. — Kyle Busch made two strong statements by winning the 27th annual Kroger 200 at O’Reilly Raceway Park.
Leading 197 of 200 laps, Busch and Joe Gibbs Racing let NASCAR know that cutting back Toyota’s horsepower didn’t prevent domination on the .686-mile track.
And Busch is NASCAR’s most versatile winner with a record 15 victories in three different series this season.
“We wanted to come out here this weekend and sort of get a little sweet revenge on everybody,” Busch said while referring to NASCAR’s engine rules. “It turned out that way and worked out in our favor.”
Busch didn’t let the reduced horsepower as mandated by a NASCAR technical bulletin bother him, except for a tongue-in-cheek comment after qualifying.
Driving the Z-line Designs Toyota, Busch missed the pole by a mere 62-thousands of a second to  pole winner Colin Braun.
“I’m blaming that for the reason we didn’t get the pole — we didn’t have our 15 horsepower to get us down the long straightaways here at ORP,” Busch said with a smile.
Busch led every lap until pitting under caution on lap 101. Inaugural race winner Morgan Shepherd, at age 66, led two laps and rookie Cale Gale led one before pitting.
Busch won by 1.111 seconds over Braun in the Roush Fenway Racing CitiFinancial Ford.
Busch posted a season-record 15th win in NASCAR’s top three series. He surpassed Kevin Harvick’s 14 combined wins in 2006 for most overall wins since the addition of the truck series in 1995.
“For me, it’s just been a dream season, completely, all around,” Busch said. “Everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing has stepped it up.”
Carl Edwards provided Busch with his only side-by-side competition while trying to regain three laps he lost early in the race in the pits. They battled each other while Braun and third-place Mike Bliss tried to close in on the leader. Edwards finished 11th.
“He (Edwards) wasn’t messing with me too much, but they told me on the radio to run my own race,” Busch said. “We were trying not to battle real hard with the 16 (Braun).”
Braun watched the dicing between Busch and Edwards with hopes that he could snatch the lead. He trailed Busch all the way to post his first top-five finish.
Bliss, winner of 12 USAC races at ORP, had an amazing run in the James Finch-owned Miccosukee Resorts Chevrolet. He spun on lap 22, dropped to 29th, and charged into third on lap 139.
 “I didn’t have anything for them at the end,” Bliss said. “I don’t know why I spun out, but when I got up to Carl (Edwards) I just lost it.”
Scott Wimmer was fourth followed by Josh Wise, Gale, rookie Landon Cassill, Joey Logano, David Ragan and Steve Wallace.