April 12, 2024 | By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

Kyle Busch triumphs in NASCAR Trucks at Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas — A handful of late race cautions only made it more dramatic but veteran Kyle Busch still managed to hold off a hard-charging field to claim a record-tying sixth NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race victory at Texas Motor Speedway, just bettering Corey Heim by a mere .112-second to win Friday night’s SpeedyCash.com 250.

Maybe while competing in Texas Busch should consider changing his nickname from “Rowdy” to the popular Texas greeting, “Howdy” because the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion has absolutely created an unbelievable mark of excellence competing at the Fort Worth 1.5-miler.

Busch’s sixth win in a Texas Motor Speedway truck race ties him with Todd Bodine for most ever. Busch has won the last four truck races he’s entered at the track. And. ..it is Busch’s 20th overall win at TMS – an unprecedented tally that also includes four NASCAR Cup Series victories and 10 Xfinity Series race wins.

He led a race best 112 of the 167 laps in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Friday and won both stages.

“Great team, everybody here at Spire [Motorsports],” said Busch, who has won a record 66 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races in his career – two this season.

“They definitely kept me honest, I’ll give them that,” said Busch, who compared the robust competition all night to another inspired win when he had to come from 15th place with two laps remaining to win a race.

“Corey [Heim] kept us honest right there,” he continued. “He started to find that top over there and got some momentum over there with three to go. I chattered really bad, so my front just wasn’t working over there. … he made it and got to my rear bumper getting into [turn] three and I just didn’t know which way to go so I ran the middle then to the bottom and then he slipped up top and I guess we had enough of a gap after that.”

Heim’s runner-up finish in the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota continues his perfect streak of top-10 finishes in every Truck race this season (seven). The margin of victory Friday was the second closest ever at the Texas track.

“It just seemed like a big track position game at the end there,” said the 21-year old Heim. “He’d get really big runs on the straightaways and once you get to the corner it’s really hard to stay behind someone and keep the momentum.

“I did all I could there trying to pick up three [positions] on that last restart but got another caution there unfortunately and just tried to build a run on him, but he’s just too good and does a really good job. Really happy with our run tonight, picked up stage points and finished second.”

Despite Busch’s laps led tally, It was really a highly-competitive race at the front of the field. Christian Eckes led 31 laps and Nick Sanchez led 16. The three drivers – Heim, Eckes and Sanchez – exchanging positions among the top five all evening in pursuit of Busch.

REV Racing’s Sanchez finished third, followed by McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Eckes and former series champion – now a NASCAR Cup Series rookie – Zane Smith, who also competed for McAnally-Hilgemann Friday night.

Daniel Dye, brothers Tayler and Tanner Gray, Stefan Parsons and Ty Majeski rounded out the top-10 finishers.

It was a rough night for early-season championship leader Tyler Ankrum, who was collected in an accident only two laps into the race and finished last, 34th place.

The championship standings changed up with the Texas results and Eckes – the series’ only two-race winner so far in 2024 – takes the lead by two-points over Heim. Majeski, who came into the race leading the points, is now third, 12 points back. Ankrum drops to sixth place, 43 points behind Eckes.

The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series takes a weekend off before returning to competition May 4 in the Heart of America 200 at Kansas Speedway (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Grant Enfinger is the defending race winner.



NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race Number 7
Race Results for the SpeedyCash.com 250 - Friday, April 12, 2024
Texas Motor Speedway - Fort Worth, TX - 1.5 - Mile Paved

Total Race Length - 167 Laps - 250.5 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Friday, 4/12/2024 @ 11:26 PM Eastern

Fin Str Trk Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 4 7 Kyle Busch(i) Realtree Chevrolet 167 1 1 0 Running 3 112
2 14 11 Corey Heim Safelite Toyota 167 9 4 44 Running  
3 1 2 Nick Sanchez Gainbridge Chevrolet 167 3 2 51 Running 1 16
4 2 19 Christian Eckes Gates Hydraulics Chevrolet 167 2 3 50 Running 3 31
5 12 91 Zane Smith(i) SpeedyCash.com Chevrolet 167 4 7 0 Running 1 8
6 6 43 Daniel Dye Champion Container Chevrolet 167 6 8 39 Running  
7 9 17 Taylor Gray JBL Toyota 167 10 5 37 Running  
8 34 15 Tanner Gray Operation 300 Toyota 167   29 Running  
9 25 75 Stefan Parsons Trophy Tractor Chevrolet 167   28 Running  
10 11 98 Ty Majeski Road Ranger Ford 167   27 Running  
11 21 33 Lawless Alan AUTOChargit Mobile Ford 167   26 Running  
12 10 71 Rajah Caruth HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 167   25 Running  
13 3 52 Stewart Friesen Chili's Toyota 167 5  30 Running  
14 8 41 Bayley Currey AutoVentive/Precision Chevrolet 167   23 Running  
15 22 88 Matt Crafton Great Lakes Flooring/Menards Ford 167   22 Running  
16 17 5 Dean Thompson McKee Utility Toyota 167   21 Running  
17 18 45 Johnny Sauter Karl Chevrolet Chevrolet 167  10 21 Running  
18 16 66 Conner Jones # TSPORT Ford 166   19 Running  
19 13 13 Jake Garcia Quanta Services Ford 166   18 Running  
20 29 02 Mason Massey RANDCO Chevrolet 166   17 Running  
21 30 56 Timmy Hill Coble Enterprises/UNITS Toyota 166   16 Running  
22 27 32 Bret Holmes Precision Garage Door Chevrolet 166   15 Running  
23 24 25 Ty Dillon Rackley Roofing Chevrolet 166   14 Running  
24 19 99 Ben Rhodes Kubota Ford 165   13 Running  
25 15 77 Chase Purdy Bama Buggies Chevrolet 165   12 Running  
26 20 42 Matt Mills J.F. Electric/Utilitra Chevrolet 165   11 Running  
27 28 76 Spencer Boyd Tohatsu America Chevrolet 162   10 Running  
28 32 22 Keith McGee More Core Ford 159   9 Running  
29 5 9 Grant Enfinger Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet 151 8 9 13 Accident  
30 26 1 Kris Wright America's Auto Auction/Esmark Toyota 145   7 Accident  
31 7 38 Layne Riggs # Infinity Communications Group Ford 135 7 6 15 Accident  
32 23 46 Thad Moffitt # Safety-Kleen Chevrolet 1   5 Accident  
33 31 20 Memphis Villarreal Laredo Trailer Supply Chevrolet 1   4 Accident  
34 33 18 Tyler Ankrum LiUNA! Chevrolet 1   3 Accident  

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 6 Mins, 52 Secs. Average Speed: 118.471 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.112 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 7, 19, 2, 91, 52, 43, 38, 9, 11, 17
Stage 2 Top 10: 7, 2, 19, 11, 17, 38, 91, 43, 9, 45

Caution Flags: 7 for 40 laps; Laps: 3-8 (#18, 20, 46, 71 Incident Backstretch  [None]); 13-16 (#71 Spin Turn 2 [1]); 42-46 (Stage 1 Conclusion [02]); 82-86 (Stage 2 Conclusion [15]); 132-141 (#38 Incident Turn 2 [15]); 147-150 (#1, 02, 52 Incident Turn 2 [41]); 152-157 (#5, 9, 45, 88 Incident Turn 3 [71]).

Lead Changes: 7 among 4 drivers; N. Sanchez 1-16; C. Eckes 17-37; K. Busch(i) 38-127; C. Eckes 128; Z. Smith(i) 129-136; K. Busch(i) 137-149; C. Eckes 150-158; K. Busch(i) 159-167.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: May 4, 2024 - Kansas Speedway

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