In the closing laps of the race, Scott was limping to a 15th-place finish when he got together with Nelson Piquet Jr, which knocked Scott out of the groove in Turn 2. Scott dropped from 15th down to 20th.

On the cool down lap, Scott, of Richard Childress Racing,  cut in front of Piquet, or Turner Scott Motorsports.

When the two cars stopped on pit road and exited their cars, Piquet pushed and kicked Scott, a kick Scott called “below the belt.” The two crews almost came to blows.

Scott said:

I was just showing my displeasure with him after the race and then things escalated. I went to talk to him, I was a little heated and the camera probably shows it, but he kicks me right below the belt, which I think is a below-the-belt type of shot.

Scott and Piquet were called to the NASCAR hauler.

Evidently, an earlier incident between Dillon, also of RCR, and Allgaier, of TSM, caused the tension between the two teams. The incident between Scott and Piquet only intensified the tension.

Later, Henrico County police were called to the driver/owner lot at Richmond and two RCR crew members were arrested. Michael A. Scearce and Thomas F. Costello, of RCR’s No. 2 team, the car driven by Scott, were taken into custody for their part in an alleged assault in which two adult males were injured. Both were charged with misdemeanors and released.

Richard Childress talked about the incident:

I didn’t witness what took place last night outside of the race track. Our team members were walking to their cars and words were exchanged with members from another team, which led to an altercation. I am still learning all the exact details and, because it did happen outside of the track, local authorities became involved. We are working with them to resolve this matter.

Turner Scott Motorsports released a statement:

Turner Scott Motorsports can confirm that an incident occurred near the Driver/Owner parking lot of Richmond International Raceway following the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Friday, April 26th. Several members of another race team confronted a group that included Nelson Piquet Jr., resulting in the arrest of two individuals from the other race team. TSM will have no further comment on the incident as the matter is an active case with the Henrico Police Department.

Scott drove for JGR last season, finishing ninth in points, with two top 5s, and 11 top 10s. Scott lost his ride when JGR signed Elliott Sadler and Brian Vickers to drive in the Nationwide Series full time in 2013.

Update: Brian Scott will drive  the #2 Shore Lodge Chevy Camaro for the RCR in the 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series season. Phil Gould, car chief for the No. 2 team in 2012, has been promoted to crew chief for the team.

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• Vickers To Drive Full Nationwide Season With JGR
• Sadler Reportedly Close To Deal With JGR
• Sadler Not Returning To RCR In 2013

In a green-white-checkered-flag finish, Scott passed NASCAR wunderkind Kyle Larson to win Friday night’s Lucas Oil 150 Camping World Truck Series race at Phoenix International Raceway.

The victory was Scott’s first of the season and second of his career, his first win coming at Dover in 2009. But Scott provided only half the drama.

James Buescher and Ty Dillon, the top two contenders for the series championship, both had major trouble, with Buescher blowing a right front tire and crashing hard into the Turn 4 wall with less than three laps left.

Buescher finished 17th and Dillon 15th, to tighten the race for the title as the series heads for the season finale next Friday at Homestead. Buescher leads Timothy Peters by 11 points and Dillon by 12.

Passed by Dillon early in the race, Scott learned from the experience.

“I probably have to give a dozen roses to Ty Dillon,” said Scott, “because he was able to get by me on a restart earlier by holding me down and driving in deep through the corner and just keeping position on me — and I learned from it.

“Luckily I was able to come back and have the opportunity to do the same thing to somebody else, somebody that probably wasn’t expecting it… Fortunately for us, I was able to apply something I learned earlier in the race. I just went into the corner really hard, held him down and got him a little loose.”

Larson trailed Scott to the finish line, followed by Joey Coulter and Peters. Ryan Blaney completed the top five.

Friday’s race went green for the first 36 laps before it took on the character of a demolition derby. Six cautions, which occupied 33 of the next 42 laps, saw a rash of competitive trucks damaged on the treacherous race track.

Jason White collected Todd Bodine’s Toyota on Lap 49. Parker Kligerman’s Toyota broke loose in traffic on Lap 54 and waylaid the truck of Matt Crafton. Polesitter Nelson Piquet Jr., Johnny Sauter, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Miguel Paludo were involved in a four-truck melee on Lap 65.

Cale Gale crashed on the frontstretch on Lap 73 to bring out caution No. 6. Divergent pit strategies put Ryan Truex in the lead before Justin Lofton overtook him as the race neared the 100-lap mark, but a caution on Lap 102 shuffled the running order for a restart on Lap 109, with Peters and Scott leading the field to green.

Larson dived to the inside to pass the top two trucks on the restart lap, but one circuit later, German Quiroga drove too hard into Turn 1, locked his brakes and wrecked the trucks of Brendan Gaughan and Dillon.

NASCAR stopped the race for 13 minutes, 10 seconds to facilitate track cleanup. Back under yellow, Dillon’s crew worked frantically to patch the damage to the No. 3 Chevrolet, keeping Dillon on the lead lap.

Larson held the top spot until Scott passed him on Lap 152 of 153.

Note: Eric Phillips, who called the shots for the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota driven by Scott, won for the 27th time as a Truck Series crew chief, second most all-time. He’s one behind KBM general manager Rick Ren in NCWTS crew chief victories.

The 22-year-old Buescher, who also won at the 1.5-mile track back on June 28, captured his fourth overall win of both the season and his NCWTS career (all on 1.5-mile tracks).

“I wouldn’t say it was a dominating performance like the last time we were here (led 119 of 150 laps), but I think we led the most laps and dominated anyway,” said Buescher, who indeed led the most laps Friday (64 of the race’s 134 circuits around the track). “We’ve won four races with the same truck and now we’re going to dust it off and take it to another mile-and-a-half (next week at Las Vegas).”

The Plano, Texas native won Friday’s race the hard way — taking a bigger gamble than most gamblers might do at some of the nearby casinos along the Ohio River — by not pitting for fuel in the final 53 laps.

Buescher’s Turner Motorsports crew chief, Michael Shelton, made sure his driver saved enough fuel in their Chevrolet Silverado at the right time — particularly on the last caution period from Lap 108 to 111 — to motor all the way to the checkered flag.

“We should have been at least two (laps) to the good,” Shelton said. “James saved fuel for us every way he could, but we were definitely close. It would have been real interesting if it had been a green-white-checker there and where everybody would have been, but fortunately it played out for us.”

Buescher, who admitted he wasn’t feeling 100 percent in the race, having battled the flu bug for the last three days, came in on Lap 81 for just two right-side tires and fuel to gain an advantage coming out of the pits. The strategy added to the drama when the seventh and final caution of the race occurred on Lap 107 after Jason White wrecked.

With 27 laps to go, Shelton elected to keep Buescher on the track to maintain position, as did his four closest challengers — pole-sitter Joey Coulter, rookie Ty Dillon, Parker Kligerman and Matt Crafton — setting up the fuel mileage outcome. Ironically, none of the leaders ran out of fuel in the final laps.

“I think we were two laps to the good, so maybe two more laps (left),” Dillon said. “We were chancing it there. . . . I’m a little bummed about finishing third just because James won, but we’ve got some speed and some great momentum.”

Dillon made a surge toward the front in the final 15 laps, but Buescher’s truck was nothing short of flawless, building a nearly two-second lead before finishing with a 1.292-second winning margin over runner-up Parker Kligerman, who rallied back from an earlier spin.

Dillon finished third, followed by Coulter and Brian Scott in fifth. Dillon now has three top-3 finishes in his last three starts: his first career NCWTS win at Atlanta, a second-place showing last week at Iowa and Friday’s third-place outing.

Dillon came into the race atop the points standings, leading Timothy Peters by eight points and Buescher by 11. But Buescher’s win significantly tightened things up, as Dillon’s lead is now only four points over Buescher. Peters, meanwhile, wrecked just before halfway and finished 21st, dropping to third place in the season standings, now 22 points behind Dillon.

“We battled back and our team showed a lot of resiliency,” Dillon said. “I’ll take this kind of day any day. Our team really has a lot of momentum going. … It’s not easy to finish three times in a row in the top three — first, second and third the last three weeks. If we keep doing that, the wins are going to come. We’re still a young and learning team and we’re going to keep fighting for these wins.

“It was a great race, I thought. We just needed a little bit more speed for the 31 (Buescher).”

The threat of heavy rain prior to the start of the race dissipated as the storm front stayed north by about 50 miles, and by the time the green flag fell for the 36 trucks that qualified to race, the skies were relatively clear, promising an exciting night of racing.

“We knew from the start of the race that there was weather near the track,” Kligerman said. “I actually on the pace laps said to my crew to make sure they were up on the weather, especially as we approached halfway (through the 134-lap race), just to make sure that we’re not giving anything up. We’re not here to just win a race, we’re here to win a championship.”

Last week’s first-time winner at Iowa Speedway, 18-year-old Ryan Blaney, had his own share of excitement even before the race began. During the first of two practice sessions earlier in the day, Blaney lost the handle on his Dodge truck, crashing into the Turn 1 wall. The damage was irreparable, prompting the team to go to a backup truck for the second practice and qualifying, in which Blaney placed 16th.

Even though his backup truck was a handful to drive at times, Blaney still managed to come home with an 11th-place finish.

On Lap 81, Kligerman lost control and went on a single-truck spin down the frontstretch, but with little damage and he was able to continue on. Not only that, Kligerman was able to recover, earning his second runner-up and fourth top-5 finish in five starts since joining Red Horse Racing.

“We had one of those nights where just everything that could go against us, even with a fast truck, went against us,” Kligerman said. “I tried to force the issue and spun out. From there, we were in recovery mode and passed a bunch of trucks on the restart. From there, we just tried to chase down the 31 (of Buescher), and just came up a little short.”

Buescher regained the lead on Lap 83 and never relinquished it from that point on.

As it turned out, however, the rain that everyone appeared to be watching faded away and the race was able to go the entire scheduled length without even a hint of precipitation.

Making his first start for Turner Motorsports, rookie Dakoda Armstrong had problems that began on the pace laps, when smoke began emitting from his Chevrolet Silverado. While he took the green flag, it was pretty clear he was suffering from an engine problem that quickly dropped him from his 20th qualifying spot to 28th in just the first 10 laps.

He eventually came onto pit road and called it a night as the engine suffered irreparable damage.

“I think the motor just took a crap,” Armstrong said afterward. “Unfortunately right from the get-go, it was blowing smoke out of the headers. As soon as we took the green, there was no power. It was gone. . . . It’s really disappointing. Everyone worked real hard to get this thing going.”

NOTES: The series moves to Las Vegas for a night race next Saturday, followed by the always unpredictable Talladega on Oct. 6. . . . Jason White made the biggest move in the standings — unfortunately downward — dropping three spots from ninth to 12th.

Charging forward from the seventh position after a restart on Lap 158 of 200, Logano overtook pole-sitter Ryan Truex for the lead on Lap 195 to win the 5-Hour Energy 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race, leading a 1-2-3 finish for Joe Gibbs Racing.

In winning his fourth Nationwide race in 10 starts this season and the 13th of his career, Logano finished 1.526 seconds ahead of Truex, who was 11 days removed from an emergency appendectomy.

When Logano came to the pits on Lap 152 after spinning Tim Bainey Jr. to cause the sixth and final caution on Lap 151 (an incident Logano attributed to a rookie not giving the leader enough room), Truex inherited the lead and appeared headed for a fairy tale finish until Logano caught him with five laps left.

Brian Scott ran third, followed by Kurt Busch and Justin Allgaier.

Logano led 154 laps in claiming his third victory in his last four Nationwide starts. The driver of the No. 18 Toyota said his current success was due to improvements made during the offseason.

“Last year we struggled a little bit, and we were able to really diagnose some of the things we could do better as a team,” Logano said. “We also did a great job making our cars better — better aero, better motors, all that stuff adds up. We’re coming to the racetrack with a better package and are able to make small adjustments to tune it in better, and that all transfers to the race.”

Logano trailed Truex by more than two seconds with 12 laps left, but Truex was slowed by two lapped cars on Lap 195, enabling Logano to close quickly and make the pass.

“We were pretty free that last run, and Joey was catching us on new tires,” Truex said. “I don’t think he would have caught me in five laps, but I just caught traffic at the wrong time. For some reason, those guys were racing each other 20 laps down in front of me, and I had nowhere to go, and that was the end of it.”

The surgery was not an issue for Truex at all.

“From the second I got in the race car, I didn’t even remember that I had surgery,” Truex said. “That was no issue. That was the last thing that would come to my mind as I was racing.”

The race was not yet 27 laps old when the championship battle turned upside down. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., running second to Logano at the time, lost control of his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford off Turn 2 and slammed nose-first into the inside wall on the backstretch.

“I just lost it,” Stenhouse said. “I wasn’t up on the wheel and just kind of riding around until that competition caution (scheduled for Lap 40) and just got behind on the steering. “It was driver error, totally my fault.”

For the second straight week, Stenhouse took a major hit in the standings. A broken drive shaft May 26 at Charlotte cost him most of his championship lead. With Saturday’s trouble — even though he returned to the track on lap 94 — Stenhouse finished 32nd and fell from first to second, 12 points behind Elliott Sadler (seventh Saturday) and two ahead of third-place Austin Dillon (sixth Saturday).

After the competition caution, which ran from Laps 42-45, the race settled into a long green-flag run, with Logano blitzing the field. After a cycle of green-flag stops that ended on Lap 123, there were seven cars left on the lead lap, and Logano had been out front for 120 of the 123 circuits.

But when Timmy Hill spun in close-quarters racing in front of Sam Hornish Jr. on Lap 124, Sadler got a free pass back to the lead lap as the highest scored lapped car.

Two laps after the subsequent restart, Hornish’s Dodge broke loose under Danica Patrick’s Chevrolet. Patrick clobbered the outside wall in a wreck that also collected Brad Sweet. Patrick took her car to the garage and was credited with a 30th-place finish.

Fighting off challenges from a succession of rivals, Logano, the Coors Light Pole Award winner, gave JGR its eighth consecutive Nationwide Series victory at Auto Club Speedway in winning the Royal Purple 300 by 1.066 seconds over runner-up Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

The victory was Logano’s first of the season, second at Fontana and the 10th of his career. Logano is the first Sprint Cup Series regular to win a Nationwide race this season.

“It’s important to keep the streak going,” said Logano, who survived a wild restart with 12 laps left and pulled away for the win. “You don’t want to be the guy who didn’t win it and broke the streak. Obviously, it makes me work extra hard — not that we don’t work hard any other weekend; we try to win every one of them — but to keep a streak going like that is important for our whole company.”

Brad Keselowski ran third, followed by Brian Scott and rookie Austin Dillon. Brad Sweet, Kenny Wallace, Kyle Busch, series leader Elliott Sadler and Brendan Gaughan completed the top 10.

After debris punctured the radiator of her No. 7 Chevrolet, Danica Patrick retired with an engine failure and finished 35th.

By the time Sam Hornish’s wild spin in Turn 4 brought out the second caution of the race on Lap 91, Logano had led 54 laps, but the yellow flag bunched the field and made for dramatic racing at the front.

Logano, Stenhouse, Busch, Gaughan and Allgaier all made runs at the top spot before a caution for debris in Turn 4 on Lap 104 slowed the field and brought a round of pit stops for the lead-lap cars.

Busch, who restarted sixth on Lap 109, was the only driver exiting pit road in the top 10 who took tires on the pit stop. Busch’s crew chief, Mike Beam, opted for right-side rubber, while the cars that restarted ahead of him took fuel only.

Within three laps, Busch was in the lead, passing Logano for the top spot on Lap 112, with Keselowski in pursuit. The 2009 Nationwide champion kept the 2010 Nationwide champion at bay until Lap 125, when Keselowski moved around him for the lead.

Logano soon rejoined the battle and took over the top spot on Lap 129, a position he held until Blake Koch’s Lap 133 spin in Turn 4 necessitated the fourth caution and set up a final round of pit stops, with Trevor Bayne leaving pit road with the lead, thanks to a two-tire call.

A slow pit stop cost Busch 14 positions, but he rallied to post the first top-10 finish of the season for his new Nationwide team. Bayne gave way to drivers with fresher rubber and came home 14th.

“For me, this is one of the best Nationwide races of the year,” Keselowski said. “You see a lot of really good action here, the way the track has worn in over time. And the way the cars are with really low power, they can seemingly draft very well and do some really cool maneuvers.

“Like I said, I think this is one of the best Nationwide races of the year — every year, not just this year — at least from my view.”

Dollar General will sponsor the No. 20 Sprint Cup Series Toyota and driver Joey Logano for around 10 races next season. Home Depot will scale back its sponsorship next season.

Dollar General will also sponsor the No. 11 Nationwide Series team and driver Brian Scott. The company will also appear as primary sponsor of the Nos. 18 and 20 Nationwide Toyotas in select races.

The sponsor is expected to continue working with Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series.

Keselowski won his third Nationwide race of the season and the 15th of his career, cruising to a decisive victory over Carl Edwards, whose chances at a victory evaporated when his No. 60 Ford ran out of fuel moments before a scheduled pit stop on Lap 124 of 200.

Polesitter Brian Scott came home third, followed by Aric Almirola and Sam Hornish Jr. in a race that saw 10 cars finish on the lead lap. Series points leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. held the top spot in the standings with an eighth-place finish.

Keselowski, who qualified sixth for the Cup race before taking the green later in the afternoon, held a 10-second lead over Edwards after a round of green-flag pit stops late in the race and cruised through the final 30 laps.

“It’s a great booster to get a win before going into the Chase,” Keselowski said. “It was great execution today. That’s what it takes to win right now. Our Dodges are fast, and today we just executed really well and did what it takes.”

Asked what might carry over into Sunday’s Cup race, Keselowski said, “There’s always the confidence—that’s the biggest thing.”

During the early and middle portions of the race, Keselowski and Edwards—the only Chase drivers in the field—took turns dominating.

Keselowski wrested the lead from Scott on Lap 2 and stayed out front—with the exception of one lap under caution—until Edwards passed him in traffic on Lap 90.

“I’m going to take every one of those freakin’ lapped cars and wreck ’em,” Keselowski vented, after one of the back markers failed to give him a lane to pass and facilitated Edwards’ move to the lead.

By the time Keselowski made a green-flag pit stop for tires and fuel on Lap 115, Edwards had extended his advantage to three seconds. Edwards waited until Lap 124 to pit—one lap too long, as it turned out.

Edwards ran out of fuel on the way to his pit stall, and by the time the crew completed his service and his engine refired, he was nine seconds behind Keselowski and in fifth place when the cycle of stops was complete.

“They told me to pit, and I was coming down the back straightaway, and I ran out of fuel,” Edwards said. “So it took us a little longer in the pits. The guys did a really good job of keeping it running and got us back out there, and then we had a really long green-flag run (131 laps).

“I think our car was fast enough. I would have really liked the opportunity to go up there and race Brad. We just didn’t get that caution.”

Edwards immediately began to chip away at Keselowski’s advantage, narrowing the margin to 6.188 seconds by Lap 141. Later in the run, however, Edwards’ charge stalled, and on Lap 155, he was running third behind Keselowski and Scott, 5.635 seconds behind the leader.

And, Adam Stevens, former engineer for JRG’s No. 20 Sprint Cup Toyota, will serve as the crew chief for the No. 20 Nationwide Series team.

JGR President JD Gibbs said:

We’re excited to finally have all this come together and we think the end result will be three strong entries for us each week in the Nationwide Series. We think Kevin Kidd will work great with Brian and it’s always exciting to be able to provide an opportunity to someone internally like Adam Stevens who has done such a good job for us over on the Cup side.

Joey Logano is slated to drive most of the races in the No. 20. Denny Hamlin will also drive the car in a few races. The rest of the season is still being finalized.

Kyle Busch will drive the majority of races in the No. 18 N’Wide Toyota with Jason Ratcliff serving as crew chief.

Scott, who is leading the Rookie of the Year standings, began the season with Braun Racing. He was released earlier this week, although it was reporting that split was mutual. Braun has recently been acquired by Turner Motorsports.

 There were talks of him joining Joe Gibbs Racing, and it is unclear at this time whether those talks are continuing. Also, it’s unlcear whether Scott will drive the No. 09 beyond the race at Kansas.