Two down, one to sweep for Kyle Busch at Las Vegas
Photo by Dave Biro of DB3 Imaging
LAS VEGAS—Kyle Busch brought home the hardware again at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
But the Sin City native had to delay his gratification as the Boyd Gaming 300 went into double over-time before Busch could take the checkered flag.
When the race went green for the eighth and final time on Lap 212, Busch was able to extend his lead over John Hunter Nemechek by .192-seconds over the last two circuits for his second Vegas Xfinity win.
“The Supra—it’s cool to back up Christopher’s (Bell) win last week and get two into Victory Lane. I wanted to be the first one but he showed me up a little bit last week. But I’m proud of Toyota and proud of these guys.
“It’s cool to come out here and be a part of Las Vegas—being my hometown and having the opportunity to race in front of my home. Having a rookie crew chief like Ben (Beshore) and being able to get him his first win. I don’t know how many crew chiefs I’ve won with in the Xfinity Series, but the list is a long one and I appreciate all of them.”
It was a Vegas trifecta, with Busch scoring his 93rd Xfinity Series win, the Maury Gallagher-owned GMS Racing team finishing second and homeboy Noah Gragson coming in third. Austin Dillon came from a lap down to finish fourth, followed by Michael Annett, Ryan Sieg, Ross Chastain, Chase Briscoe and Cole Custer.
Custer, who started from the pole when qualifying was set by owner’s points due to rain, led the first 45 laps for the Stage 1 win. Busch was forced to pit on Lap 15 with a loose tire and lost a lap. He took the wave-around at the end of Stage 1 and restarted 19th for Stage 2.
With a solid pit stop, Tyler Reddick was the first car off of pit road when the race returned to green on Lap 53. Seven laps later, the third caution was called when Zane Smith turned Austin Cindric in Turn 2. Busch climbed to 17th after that caution and raced his way passed Nemechek for third on Lap 88.
“I didn’t keep myself in the game, but I knew to keep fighting, knew to keep working,” Busch said. “It was early so you knew you could try and come back from one of those setbacks. I didn’t know how we were going to do it since we were short a set of tires, but we got a lucky break with that caution in the second stage. That kind of got us back on cycle.”
Reddick won Stage 2 followed by Christopher Bell, Busch, Custer, Nemechek, Gragson, Brandon Jones, Annett, Ryan Sieg and Briscoe. Reddick was the first car out of the pits for the start of Stage 3, but after 16 laps Busch took the lead for the first time coming out of Turn 2 on Lap 112. Busch handed the lead to Bell when he pitted on Lap 148, but cycled out to the lead two laps later.
The next 50 laps turned into a dogfight between Busch and his young challengers Bell and Reddick. Bell passed Busch momentarily on Lap 181 only to return the point to his Joe Gibbs teammate. Bell and Reddick traded positions between second and third as Busch extended his advantage.
Jairo Avila, Jr. spun in Turn 4 on Lap 189 with six cars remaining on the lead lap. Busch led the field to green followed by Bell, Reddick, Jones, Custer and Nemechek. A battle ensued in the pack, and Custer clipped Jones on the backstretch entering Turn 3.
Busch held the lead with Reddick alongside and Bell behind on Lap 206, but as the leaders entered Turn 4, Busch took the air off of the No. 2 Chevy and Reddick went sideways, collecting Bell. Zane Smith, who had nowhere to go, slammed into Reddick, and Austin Cindric ran into Bell's Toyota.
“At the end of the race, Kyle knows what’s on the line,” said Reddick, who led 62 laps before finishing 14th. “I think he knew how hard it was to maintain the top three or four so the only option to clear him off of 1 and 2 is to get down on the quarter panel and try and take some air off of the car on the inside. I was able to do that at some points during the day to gain track position.
“We were going for it. I love wheeling it. I was on the gas. I almost had him cleared in 3. He was on my quarter panel and that’s the worst possible scenario for the handling of the car because of side force. I tried to save it. Unfortunately, collected myself and a few others. But it was overtime and we were trying to win the race. It’s just how it goes.”
Busch ran the apron the restart—taking away Nemechek’s preferred line—and held off a challenge by the No. 23 Chevy for the win. After winning the truck race on Friday, Busch will go for the sweep in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.
“I thought this would be the toughest of the three,” Busch said. “We had a fast race car but we could never get the balance even in the race right there. I was either way too tight or way too loose, I could never find a happy medium. Overall, I feel like the Cup car is pretty good. The M&M’s Chocolate Bar Camry got some speed to it as well and we ran a lot out there in traffic and the pack. So it will be interesting tomorrow.”
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