February 26, 2023 | By Lee Spencer

Kyle Busch celebrates milestone win at Auto Club Speedway

FONTANA, Calif.—For Kyle Busch, it was just a matter of time.

On Sunday at Auto Club Speedway, the most recent driver to join Richard Childress Racing wheeled the No. 8 Chevrolet back to Victory Lane with his new team.

The 37-year-old racer, who scored his first career win at the track--and now his fifith--will forever hold the distinction as the final victor on the two-mile configuration.

“I think it ranks high just because it ranks to the fact of I can do it,” Busch said. “I never doubted myself, but sometimes you do. You kind of get down on it, you wonder what's going on and what's happening and you put yourself in a different situation and you're able to come out here and reward your guys.

“It's not about me always winning but it's about the guys. I've been with a lot of great people that have given me a lot of great opportunities in my career, so it's awesome to be able to reward them.

“I'm going to enjoy it for sure, and hopefully, there's many more left to go.”

Busch led three times throughout the 200-lap contest. When he cycled to the lead on Lap 180 in the final stage, he held the point for the final 21 laps and extended his advantage to 2.998 seconds ahead of Chase Elliott.

“Just really proud of our team,” Elliott said. “We obviously didn't run very good there toward the end of the year last year, and everybody really went to work hard over the winter to try and get better. Appreciate everybody on our NAPA team for just sticking with it and sticking with each other.

“Obviously I think we still have some work to do, but it was really nice to just see a lot of that hard work pay off and have the car driving like we were wanting it to do. So that's always a good thing. Appreciate everybody's effort; everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet.”

Ross Chastain, who led a race-high 91 laps, finished third and seized the points lead. Daniel Suarez, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon and Joey Logano rounded out the top 10.

After snow, sleet and rain pelted the track on Saturday, NASCAR called a competition caution on Lap 15. Corey LaJoie nailed Keselowski on Lap 42 for the second caution. Chastain claimed the first stage win on Lap 65. With an assist from LaJoie, AJ Allmendinger spun on the backstretch. His day ended after 75 laps.

The field had not completed two laps when LaJoie spun out in Turn 4 on Lap 81 to ignite the fifth caution, but it was the following restart that triggered a nine-car wreck at the start-finish line. The cars were barely up to speed when the drivers started checking up. Christopher Bell, who started on the pole ended up in the wall and in the infield care center.

“You can’t see what’s going on,” said Bell, who finished 32nd. “You are just going off the guy in front of you and all of sudden he slows down and I got into him, and other guys got into me.”

Tyler Reddick, Aric Almirola and Ryan Preece were also evaluated and released. Cody Ware, Ty Dillon, Justin Haley, Todd Gilliland and Ryan Blaney were also involved in the wreck.

Logano took the lead when the race returned to green on Lap 92 but was quickly passed by Hamlin. Chastain raced by the No. 11 Toyota five laps later to win the stage. The final stage featured 10 lead changes with Busch passing Michael McDowell for the lead on Lap 174 for the final run.

“There were a couple of moments where I got loose,” Busch said. “I about busted my ass on that last run. So I was like, please don't. But fortunately was able to hang on well enough and tried to find another groove that my car would work better in, so it was always a constant evolution of where you needed to be and just trying to work.

“That's what I enjoy the most about this racetrack. It's a two-mile racetrack. It's big, it gets spread out, but man, you can move around and you can spread out and you can make your own destiny by trying to find something else that will help work for your race car.

“It's a sad day for me to see this racetrack be in its last race being a two-mile configuration. Glad I was able to win the final run here.”

Busch’s 61st win was a milestone in many ways. Not only did Busch take Richard Childress back to the winner’s circle in Fontana for the first time since 2011 but he was able to score a win in 19 consecutive seasons, breaking the previous mark set by Richard Petty in 1977.

The victory also gave the Busch brothers a combined 95 Cup wins—the most in NASCAR history and breaking a tie with Bobby and Donnie Allison.

“He's left all the heavy lifting for me to do for the rest of my time here,” Busch said of his older brother Kurt, who was one of the first people in Victory Lane. “He took a break. It would have certainly meant a lot to have him in the field, but just him being here and being around and still his role over at 23XI is really special. I know he's got a lot of friends over there, a lot of great guys over there that really pull for him.

“It's neat to have him be there. He was emotional. He's getting soft in his old age. It was just cool to see him come up to the car and be a part of our celebration there for a quick moment. But it's fun to set records always, and when you're able to do it as a brother tandem, there's nothing more special for our parents, I'm sure.”