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SPARTA, Ky. -- Kentucky Speedway's inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup race was a sellout.

Yet there were ticket holders who never got to see Kyle Busch win the Quaker State 400.

An untold number of fans were turned away Saturday night as traffic problems caused by the more than 100,000 fans backed up the only interstate to service the track for hours.

Halfway through the race, there were cars still trying to enter the track, but they were turned away as safety officers needed to change the traffic pattern to an outbound flow for the end of the race.

The speedway's Facebook page was covered with criticism from angry fans, and many fans discussed their long trek to the track via Twitter.

Late Saturday the speedway released a statement acknowledging "challenges related to traffic" and planning for improvements next season.

However, the 66,000-seat grandstand capacity was expanded to 107,000 for this race and no roads were added in or out of the speedway.

Busch, who won Thursday night's Trucks race at the track, took early command Saturday, leading 105 of the first 114 laps. He was so far out front, he even maintained his lead during a round of green-flag pit stops.

"This is cool, man. This (win) is right up there with the best of them," Kyle Busch said after taking the lead in the Cup standings by four points over Carl Edwards. "The way we ran tonight was just awesome. We got the tires we wanted and the fuel that we needed and that's what won us the race.

"We were right there all night. These guys were phenomenal on pit road. We unloaded really strong off the truck -- we really didn't have a whole lot of work we had to do to it."

The first visit by NASCAR's top series provided few fireworks on the track, but plenty off it. Fans took to social media to show their frustration, dubbing the mass traffic jam "Carmageddon."

As a scalper made his way up Ky. 35 selling tickets to before the event, a man shouted from his truck, "I'll buy those tickets if you can guarantee that I get to the race on time."

Even though the race wouldn't start for more than five hours, the scalper replied, "I don't know if I can."

The comment, overheard by a Lexington Herald-Leader reporter, was made in jest, but the traffic jam getting to Kentucky Speedway left many less than light-hearted as they sat in traffic for several hours. The nearly never-ending stream of cars finally began to clear close to 9 p.m., but that didn't mean the problem was solved. Some drivers tweeted that they were instead turned away at the gate because no more parking was available.

Kentucky Speedway general manager Mark Simendinger said track officials did not anticipate such congestion.

"We're learning a lot today," he said. "I know that's probably not a lot of consolation for somebody who was stuck in traffic, but clearly we are learning a lot."

Simendinger said the track is "already planning improvements and looking forward to a much better situation for next year's event."

He said the bottleneck was at Exit 57 off Interstate 71 onto Ky. 35, which runs by the speedway.

"I think we've got to take a hard look at that and how we deal with that and alleviate some of that (traffic)," he said. "Because the amount of traffic that we generated tonight, that spot certainly can't handle."

Even Cup driver Denny Hamlin tweeted at 3 p.m. that he was in traffic and worried he wouldn't make the 5:30 p.m. drivers' meeting.

SPRINT CUP

QUAKER STATE 400

At Kentucky Speedway; Sparta, Ky.

Lap length: 1.5 miles

(Start position in parentheses)

1. (1) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 267 laps, 48 points, $213,316.

2. (17) David Reutimann, Toyota, 267, 43, $147,883.

3. (5) Jimmie Johnson, Chevy, 267, 41, $152,711.

4. (18) Ryan Newman, Chevy, 267, 40, $135,860.

5. (7) Carl Edwards, Ford, 267, 39, $134,491.

6. (13) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 267,38, $121,886.

7. (6) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 267, 38, $114,108.

8. (8) David Ragan, Ford, 267, 37, $89,850.

9. (3) Kurt Busch, Dodge, 267, 36, $120,675.

10. (14) Jeff Gordon, Chevy, 267, 34, $117,436.

11. (26) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 267, 34, $128,950.

12. (9) Tony Stewart, Chevy, 267, 33, $119,883.

13. (4) Kasey Kahne, Toyota, 267, 32, $102,233.

14. (15) Joey Logano, Toyota, 267, 30, $86,600.

15. (2) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevy, 267, 29, $115,208.

16. (19) Kevin Harvick, Chevy, 267, 28, $125,311.

17. (12) Regan Smith, Chevy, 267, 27, $102,720.

18. (16) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 267, 27, $83,950.

19. (22) Jeff Burton, Chevy, 267, 25, $84,650.

20. (11) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 267, 24, $106,566.

21. (21) Greg Biffle, Ford, 267, 23, $90,000.

22. (28) Mark Martin, Chevy, 267, 22, $83,000.

23. (30) Landon Cassill, Chevy, 267, 0, $90,233.

24. (10) Paul Menard, Chevy, 266, 20, $82,525.

25. (25) Casey Mears, Toyota, 266, 19, $74,800.

26. (24) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 266, 18, $100,395.

27. (27) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 265, 17, $101,014.

28. (23) A J Allmendinger, Ford, 265, 16, $110,611.

29. (37) Travis Kvapil, Ford, 265, 0, $85,733.

30. (29) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevy, 265, 14, $79,000.

31. (35) David Gilliland, Ford, 264, 13, $80,982.

32. (39) Andy Lally, Ford, 264, 12, $79,825.

33. (32) Dave Blaney, Chevy, 264, 11, $71,225.

34. (42) Mike Bliss, Ford, 264, 0, $70,225.

35. (20) Clint Bowyer, Chevy, accident, 259, 9, $114,333.

36. (34) Jamie McMurray, Chevy, engine, 198, 8, $108,739.

37. (43) Scott Wimmer, Dodge, electrical, 90, 0, $70,075.

38. (41) Tony Raines, Ford, vibration, 38, 6, $70,000.

39. (31) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, brakes, 37, 0, $69,950.

40. (36) J.J. Yeley, Chevy, transmission, 35, 5, $69,850.

41. (38) Michael McDowell, Toyota, electrical, 32, 3, $69,800.

42. (40) Scott Riggs, Chevy, brakes, 28, 0, $69,745.

43. (33) Mike Skinner, Toyota, electrical, 17, 0, $69,317.

Race statistics

Average speed of winner: 137.314 mph.

Time of race: 2 hours, 55 minutes, 0 seconds.

Margin of victory: 0.179 seconds.

Caution flags: 6 for 32 laps.

Lead changes: 20 among 12 drivers.

Lap leaders: Ku.Busch 1-31; Ky.Busch 32; T.Kvapil 33; J.Yeley 34; K.Kahne 35; Ky.Busch 36-81; L.Cassill 82-83; Ky.Busch 84-141; B.Keselowski 142-157; Ky.Busch 158; T.Stewart 159; B.Keselowski 160-185; Ky.Busch 186-193; D.Hamlin 194-198; D.Ragan 199-201; M.Truex Jr. 202; B.Keselowski 203-239; Ku.Busch 240-249; D.Reutimann 250-256; Ky.Busch 257-267.

Leaders summary (driver, times led, laps led): Ky.Busch, 6 times for 125 laps; B.Keselowski, 3 times for 79 laps; Ku.Busch, 2 times for 41 laps; D.Reutimann, 1 time for 7 laps; D.Hamlin, 1 time for 5 laps; D.Ragan, 1 time for 3 laps; L.Cassill, 1 time for 2 laps; T.Stewart, 1 time for 1 lap; K.Kahne, 1 time for 1 lap; M.Truex Jr., 1 time for 1 lap; T.Kvapil, 1 time for 1 lap; J.Yeley, 1 time for 1 lap.

Top 12 in points: 1. Ky.Busch, 624; 2. C.Edwards, 620; 3. K.Harvick, 614; 4. Ku.Busch, 606; 5. J.Johnson, 605; 6. M.Kenseth, 602; 7. J.Gordon, 553; 8. D.Earnhardt Jr., 548; 9. R.Newman, 538; 10. D.Hamlin, 529; 11. T.Stewart, 527; 12. C.Bowyer, 514.