Wait worth it as Kyle Busch drives to Rowdy's Revenge 251 win at Berlin Raceway

Wait worth it as Kyle Busch drives to Rowdy's Revenge 251 win at Berlin Raceway

Steve Kaminski
The Grand Rapids Press

MARNE -- Kyle Busch was out of clean clothes by the time he hopped on his plane Wednesday night in Grand Rapids and headed to California.

However, Busch did have a shiny new trophy to take with him, along with $20,000 after winning the Rowdy’s Revenge 251 at Berlin Raceway.

Busch, who is second in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings, held off a pair of second-generation racing teenagers, Chase Elliott and Ross Kenseth, for his first victory at the Berlin half-mile. Busch took the lead for good on lap 150, then survived a caution-filled finish in which the yellow waved four times during the final 18 laps.

The race originally was scheduled for Tuesday, but action was rained out. Busch returned for the CRA Super Series sanctioned race in his No. 51 template body Late Model.

“You guys are awesome, thanks so much for coming out,” Busch said after climbing out of his car in Victory Lane. “I appreciate the support of the Berlin Raceway for the Rowdy’s Revenge 251. Keep telling your friends to keep coming out.”

Busch, 25, of Las Vegas, will compete in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. He spent Wednesday hanging out in Grand Rapids with his fiancee, Samantha Sarcinella, before heading to the track.


“Kyle definitely wanted to stay,” Sarcinella said. “The fans were all here and he wanted to stay and put on a show for them. We called our friends in North Carolina and told them to go pack us up some stuff. He has been gone for a week-and-a-half, and I have been gone for two weeks, and we are officially out of clothes.

“This is his favorite thing to do. He loves racing Late Models at the local short tracks. He loves this stuff. He would be doing it every week if he could.”

Elliott, 14, started eighth and dominated the first half of the race in his first Berlin appearance. Elliott, the son of 1988 Cup champion Bill Elliott, was out in front on lap 125 when the mandatory caution dropped. That gave drivers an opportunity to take their cars to the pits for their crews to work on while the 50-lap Modified feature was run.

“The first half don’t mean nothing, obviously,” Elliott said. “We were just trying to get a feel for what was going to happen in the second half. We just got beat there. We didn’t need those cautions at the end, but that’s the way it goes. It was a good night for us.”

Sprint Cup regular A.J. Allmendinger is glad he stuck around, too. Allmendinger won the Modified main, passing Mike Brooks with 20 laps to go and holding off Brian Bergakker for the win.

“I was just hoping that Kyle stayed because he is my ride home,” Allmendinger said. “(Car owner) Jeff (Striegle) didn’t have to ask me to stay. It was up to Kyle. If he stayed, I could stay. If not, I was going to have to go home. I have to thank Kyle for letting me hop on his plane. We are going to head to Sonoma tonight.”

Wednesday’s program drew about 5,000 spectators, and fans including Tracey and Tom Ziolkowski of Huntley, Ill., were glad they returned. Their daughter, Lexie Ziolkowski, 14, roots for Busch, and they attended Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, then headed over to Marne.

The Ziolkowskis had to check out of their hotel in Holland by noon, so they arrived at Berlin around 1 p.m. and hung out for 6 hours, waiting for the race to start.

“My daughter is a huge, huge Kyle Busch fan, and that was the main draw, but we really love small tracks,” Tracey said. “We try to get to one each year, and we picked this one. We have never been here before, but it won’t be our last visit."