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Nationwide Breakdown: Royal Purple 300

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Another Nationwide race, another Kyle Busch victory.

For the third time in five races this season, Busch emerged victorious in the second-tier series, leading 92 laps en route to his 54th career win in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. It was a commanding performance from the Las Vegas native, who started from the pole and was substantially challenged by points leader and runner-up Sam Hornish Jr., who added 28 laps led.

His win continues a return to form for Busch, who returned to Joe Gibbs Racing in the Nationwide Series in 2013 after driving for his own team in 2012. After being unable to secure any sort of win in the series last year, he’s already scored enough victories this year to compensate — and then some.

Five NASCAR Truths We Already Know For 2013

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The 2013 season is just four races old, and already we’ve seen some things to think about as the year rolls forward. From who’s at the top of the standings to who’s closer to the bottom, what the Gen-6 can—and can’t—do, and attendance falling as TV ratings rise, the last month has been full of surprises. While it’s definitely too early to accurately answer a lot of the questions that this season has already posed, we do know some things…and are still completely in the dark on others.

So, while we don’t know which teams are going to get ahead with the Gen-6 cars and therefore be the biggest title threats, how that car will perform say, 20 weeks from now, or whether the ratings will continue after the early-season hype wears off, there are some truths that you can just about take to the bank as the season progresses.

Four Burning Questions in Fontana: Feuds, Cautions, and Single File Parades

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Auto Club Speedway, located in the not-so-picturesque Inland Empire town of Fontana, CA, is the site of Round 5 of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Season. Infamous for being a popular symbol of NASCAR’s plight of the mid-2000s post-boom era, the track once known for it’s boring on-track product has come to life a bit in recent years due to an aging surface pavement that will give drivers and teams fits all weekend long. But lets not get ahead of ourselves here, a good race at Auto Club is still tantamount to an average race anywhere else. Nonetheless, the big teams have usually thrived here, so one of the main questions heading into the weekend will certainly be whether or not the powerhouse squads will blow away the field like they have in the past at Auto Club. Meanwhile, in the garage area, we have a Twitter rivalry brewing, a points leader putting up insane numbers, and all sorts of craziness after a barnburner of a race at Bristol. There’s an awful lot to cover this week, so without further ado, let’s get started!

Tech Talk: Steve Letarte On Tires, Aerodynamics And Fontana

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_Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is the second hottest driver on the Cup circuit right now, with top-10 finishes in all four of the races that have been held this season. Some pundits predicted that Earnhardt would do better with this new generation car than he did with the previous incarnation of Cup cars. Other people might just point to the man on top of his pit box. Earnhardt is starting his third season with Steve Letarte as his crew chief and the two seem to be hitting their stride as they begin the 2013 season. Letarte gave Frontstretch a few minutes to look back at Bristol and ahead to California._

Mike Neff: *Dale made some contact with the wall early on in the race at Bristol. He fell back for the remainder of that run but rebounded rather quickly after the next pit stop and ended up with his fourth top 10 of the season. Did the contact damage the car requiring adjustments to correct it or was it just cosmetic damage?*

Side By Side: Should Interlopers Cut Series Regulars a Break?

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_Welcome back to Side By Side. There are always two sides to every story, and we’re going to bring them both, right here, every week. Two of our staff writers will face off on an important racing question … feel free to tell us what you think in the weekly poll and also in the comments section below!_

*This Week’s Question: After a late-race shove from Chris Buescher knocked him out of the top 5, Nationwide regular Justin Allgaier expressed his unhappiness with the way Buescher raced, saying, “Unfortunately when you’re not racing for points, when you’re racing those who are racing for points, it’s hard to sometimes not do something like that so you can prove yourself. But at the same time, it screws a lot of people up around you don’t even realize it.” Do drivers need to race the regulars who are racing for a title in a series differently than they might race the regulars in their own declared series?*

Five Points to Ponder: NASCAR Rivalries Unleashed And A Champion Returns

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I think it’s safe to say that erstwhile teammates Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano will not be sharing a gentle game of hoops anytime soon. The acrimony between the two began – in public, at least – after the Daytona 500 in a Twitter war about the final restart of the Great American Race. The situation revved up to full-on animosity at Thunder Valley this past weekend after an on-track incident and a post-race altercation of sorts.

Who’s Hot / Who’s Not in NASCAR: Bristol-Fontana Edition

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With performance of the new Generation-6 models beginning to come into question, NASCAR got just what it wanted in an exciting weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. Action packed racing took center stage as some drivers found that the World’s Fastest Half-Mile wasn’t spacious enough to contain their ill fortunes and boiling tempers.

Small Track, Big Storylines: Bristol Made Its Comeback

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Let’s be honest. Most of us don’t tune into the race or trek into the tracks with high expectations. High _hopes_, maybe, but certainly not high expectations. After all, why should we? These may be the best drivers in the world, but that also means they know how to conserve, preserve, and basically ride around for the time being. Only with 20 laps to go these days do we see some hard-charging, balls-to-the-wall racing that makes us hold our breath longer than we knew was humanly possible. Either that, or we leave claw marks on the edges of our seats.

But, with Bristol, we allow those expectations to drift ever so higher. The highlight reels, of a generation of hard-fought finishes tell the tale. Bristol is a world where sheet metal has wrinkles, tires leave trails, and helmets grow wings. Drivers may get ticked, but the on track racing is spectacular. It’s fun to watch throughout.