Kyle Busch Spins, But Still Wins At The Glen
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Despite spinning from the lead during the first stage, Kyle Busch drove to a dominant victory in Saturday’s Zippo 200 At The Glen NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Watkins Glen Int’l.
As it seems so many victories are for Busch, it was a milestone day for he and the Joe Gibbs Racing team. It was the first XFINITY Series victory for Busch and JGR at the scenic road course.
More importantly, it was the 139th XFINITY Series triumph for Joe Gibbs Racing, breaking a tie with Roush Fenway Racing for the most of any team in NASCAR history. It was also Busch’s 90th XFINITY Series victory.
Busch led 43 of the 82 laps in the No. 18 Toyota despite spinning from the lead early on. Busch lost only a few spots after spinning, but made matters worse when he through four pit stalls on his way to his pit box. That lead to a penalty and Busch’s restarting at the rear of the field to start the second segment.
“Finally being able to win here at Watkins Glen in the XFINITY Series, is one of the boxes we’ve been trying to check off for a long time. This feels good,” Busch said. “It was just an awesome car. I tried to screw it up a couple of times there, but these guys worked hard and we were able to work our way back to the front.”
Busch was challenged by a restart with four laps remaining in the race, but easily controlled the pace leaving Team Penske Ford teammates Brad Keselowski and polesitter Joey Logano to battle for second.
Kyle Busch (18) and Joey Logano race through the first turn Saturday at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l. (Dennis Bicksler photo)
Logano got around Keselowski, who won the opening stage and led six and won that battle.
“I ran that whole last run trying to save my stuff and I thought I might have something to race with. I thought I was going to have something, but, man, the 18 (Busch) had such a good restart. He got through the gears better than us and he was able to get ahead. I was able to get by the 22 (Keselowski), but by the time I got by him I needed another restart because the 18 was too far ahead.”
Justin Allgaier, in a JR Motorsports Chevrolet, took fresh rubber during the final yellow flag and charged from seventh to finish fourth during the closing laps.
Paul Menard, who won the second segment in his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, finished fifth.
“We got held up a little bit too much on that last restart,” Allgaier said. “We had speed, but I felt like we had a top-five car all weekend.”
Kevin Harvick, Ty Dillon, Erik Jones, Brendan Gaughan and rookie William Byron rounded out the top 10.
To see full results, turn to the next page.
Source :speedsport.com
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