Rain & Speeding Penalty No Problem For Busch
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Not even a mid-race speeding penalty could derail Kyle Busch from scoring his fifth NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory Wednesday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Making his final series start of the season, Busch won the first two stages of the rain-delayed race in dominant fashion, but was tagged with a speeding penalty during his final pit stop and restarted 17th when the green flag waved with 81 to go to start the run to the finish.
It didn’t take him long to carve his way through the field.
Busch was back inside the top 10 within 20 laps and with 50 laps to go he had climbed all the way up to fourth.
He quickly dispatched Ben Rhodes for third and by 38 circuits to remaining, the 2015 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion had worked his way around defending Truck Series champion Johnny Sauter for the runner-up spot.
From there, it was only four more circuits before Busch was roaring around Crafton’s for the lead in his No. 46 Banfield Pet Hospital Toyota Tundra.
Despite a crash between Austin Wayne Self and Justin Haley in turn two with six laps left that set up NASCAR Overtime, Busch stormed away off the bottom lane on the final restart and collected his 49th career Truck Series victory by just under a second at the checkered flag.
Busch led a race-high 109 laps in a race that was extended to 203 laps due to the overtime finish. Combined, he and Crafton led all but four circuits during the event.
“I knew once we got that penalty that I had to go somewhere other than where everybody else was,” said Busch. “I just started grooming the top and it took about 15 laps for it to come in and then it started going. It was pretty fast.
“Our truck tonight was awesome,” Busch added. “It was awesome when we unloaded. We made some fine-tune adjustments to it and she was really good all day long. … It was a lot of fun to come through the field like that. It gave me some ideas for the rest of the week. This is the start of a triple; hopefully we can get it.”
Kyle Busch in victory lane at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Jacob Seelman photo)
In seven Truck starts this season, Busch scored three wins, four top fives and five top 10s. He now stands just two wins behind 2018 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Ron Hornaday Jr. for the series record.
“It’s a goal,” Busch said of Hornaday’s mark. “I mean, anything out there like that you want to shoot for. You obviously want to continue to win as long as you’re running in these series … and fortunately I’ve got great partners that allow me to do that. I certainly want to continue to rack up some wins here.”
Crafton came home second by just under a second, but said there was little he could do on the race-ending two-lap dash with a truck that was better over the long haul.
“Man, that was a really, really good race,” said Crafton. “The bottom was definitely a little preferred, but you could move around. … I just wish we could’ve run (the last stint) out, because we were running (Kyle) down there at the end … especially when he was in lapped traffic.”
“He picked me off in lapped traffic there earlier, so it was my turn to try there at the end and I just couldn’t quite get there before the yellow came out.”
John Hunter Nemechek put a vicious crash from Michigan Int’l Speedway behind him with a podium result in third, followed by Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes.
Sauter, point leader Christopher Bell, Parker Kligerman, Austin Cindric and Brandon Jones completed the top 10.
Wednesday night’s race got off to a slow start, with a late thunderstorm moving in just prior to the scheduled start time and delaying the green flag by just over two hours.
Source :speedsport.com
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