March 30, 2019 | By Lee Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Kyle Busch closes late to win Xfinity race at Texas

FORT WORTH, TX -- Kyle Busch moved one win closer to a Lone Star sweep with his victory this afternoon in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, the My Bariatric Solutions 300.

While his car wasn’t the class of the field on Saturday, Busch executed a perfect launch on the final restart to take the lead. Over the final eight laps, Busch held off Tyler Reddick to secure his ninth NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Texas Motor Speedway and the 95th of his series career.

“This Toyota Supra was awesome today,” Busch said. “It was really fast on the long run I could just never get people away from me on the front side of the run to get settled into my rhythm and be able to go. Every time I got to the outside, people would just drive by me on the bottom. Then when I’d get to the inside, somebody would bust it on the outside on me and make me loose.

“We were just all over the place today. Certainly a fast race car once I could get rolling. Christopher Bell ran a great race, he should have won this thing today.”

Bell, who finished third, led a race-high 128 laps. But the “fuel only” decision by crew chief Ben Beshore on the final pit stop afforded the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Supra to the lead for the last run. Busch extended his advantage over Reddick by .861-seconds at the finish line.

“Not taking any tires was certainly a help,” Busch said. “We jumped the field there and I was worried about the restart because I didn’t think there was going to be enough grip, but the car certainly had enough grip in it.”

Chase Briscoe, Jeb Burton, Michael Annett, Justin Haley, Jeffrey Earnhardt, John Hunter Nemechek and Ryan Sieg rounded out the top 10.

Bell ran flag-to-flag in the first stage to score his fourth stage win of 2019. However, he was busted for speeding on pit road during his pit stop. Bell wasn’t the only JGR driver with a penalty. Brandon Jones left his pits with a jack still underneath the No. 19 Toyota Supra. Both drivers dropped to the rear of the field for the Lap 54 restart.