Kyle Busch wins Truck Series race

When Kyle Busch showed up at California Speedway in 2001 to compete in a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, the toothy 16-year-old was deemed too young for the event and prohibited from even being in the garage area.

Busch showed up at the renamed Auto Club Speedway of Southern California on Saturday in a truck for the first time since that episode. He drove it like he owned the place.

Despite starting 20th, Busch easily moved to the front of the field and won the County of San Bernardino 200 in owner Billy Ballew’s Toyota, which was also sponsored by San Bernardino County. It was his seventh career truck victory, his first in a Toyota.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence in that truck and in the team guys that I’ve got,” said Busch, 22, a Sprint Cup regular who finished second last week in the Daytona truck race. “I know I can pretty much put the thing where I want to put it. It was neat to drive through there like that.”

There were three caution flags for nine laps. By the time of the first, on Lap 6, Busch had already moved from 20th to fourth, and reached third place on Lap 10. Busch passed Todd Bodine on Lap 23, and led a total of 51 of the race’s 100 laps on the two-mile speedway, including the last 11 after the field cycled through green flag pit stops.

Toyota finished 1-2-3-4 for the second week in a row as Busch was followed to the checkered flag by Bodine, Johnny Benson and Terry Cook. The margin of victory was 1.415 seconds.

Because of rain, the top 30 starting positions were determined by last year’s owner championship points. Pole-sitter Ron Hornaday Jr. finished fifth in a Chevrolet.

A second race scheduled Saturday, the Stater Bros. 300 in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series, was postponed because of rain and rescheduled for after the Auto Club 500 Sprint Cup race today.

Seven of the top 10 finishers in the truck race were in Toyotas. Among those in something else was rookie Colin Braun, 19, an expatriate from the road-racing Rolex Grand-Am Series. Braun took ninth in a Ford in only his third start in a truck. Coincidentally, two years ago Braun was considered too young to compete on-track in a sports car event that included tobacco sponsorship.

It was that same federal law -- prohibiting those under 18 from competing in on-track activities at such events -- that nailed Busch in 2001. The truck race was a complementary event to the open-wheel Marlboro 500 Championship Auto Racing Teams event. Busch was prevented from competing.

NASCAR then instituted a rule making 18 the minimum driving age for its national series, so Busch spent 2002 in the ARCA/Remax Series before hooking up with Hendrick Motorsports in 2003 to run seven Nationwide Series races. He ran the full season in 2004 and finished second, then moved to Cup full-time in 2005, where he has finished 20th, 10th and fifth in successive years.

“This win here probably means the absolute most because here in 2001, in November, I got kicked out of this race track,” Busch said after climbing from his truck in Victory Lane. “I wasn’t able to run in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and probably I could have sat on the pole and won that race, too.

“A lot of things have changed in my life since then. I’m in the Sprint Cup Series now, but it definitely means a lot to be able to come back here like this and win this one today, first time back.”

Busch competed in the Sprint, Nationwide and Craftsman races last week in Daytona and finished in the top five in all. He has triple duty this week, too.

Benson and Bodine, both twice Busch’s age, spoke admiringly of the truck series leader.

“He’s fun to watch,” Benson said. “At times he’s all over the place, and it’s amazing how fast he is.”

Bodine went even further.

“Where he stands above the crowd is car control,” said the 2006 champion. “Earlier in the race . . . he’s sideways and sliding, and he’s driving away from me. He’s got incredible control. He’s a natural. There are guys who are naturals, and he’s one of them. Jeff Gordon, same type of league as that.”

martin.henderson@latimes.com