May 2, 2021 | By Lee Spencer

Kyle Busch sweeps the weekend at Kansas, celebrates birthday in Victory Lane

Happy Birthday, Kyle Busch!

Not only did Rowdy sweep the weekend’s races at Kansas Speedway but for the second time in his career, the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing driver celebrated another trip around the sun in Victory Lane.

Busch took the lead from Kyle Larson on Lap 257 and held on through the seventh and final caution for his second Kansas Cup win.

“Hell yeah, feels good, man,” said Busch over the radio after what has been a challenging few months in and out of the race car. “You talk about ups and downs of racing – there’s been a lot of downs of life for us. I have a great opportunity and a great job, no doubt.

“But struggling with infertility and stuff like that with Samantha (Busch, wife). Hey to Samantha and Brexton (son) back home. Hopefully, he won, I don’t know what the results are from Brexton’s race today. Just a great day to be able to put this M&M’s Mix Camry up front.”

Kevin Harvick recovered from a pit road penalty to finish second. Brad Keselowski, Matt DiBenedetto, Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr., Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher, William Byron and Austin Dillon rounded out the top 10.  For Byron, the ninth-place finish was his ninth consecutive top 10 this season.

It’s fitting that Busch’s 58th career win came in the Buschy McBusch Race 400. The 36-year-old racer became the 10th different Cup winner in 2021.

“What’s really cool is that we started the race good and we worked our way forward from the start of the race,” said Busch, who started ninth. “We made minor adjustments all day to the car and nothing really did anything. We kept getting tighter as the day went on, even though we were trying to free up.”

Although Keselowski led 72 of the first 76 laps, Busch collected the Stage 1 win on Lap 80. He became the first driver this season to win the first stage—and go on to win a race and the first driver since Cale Yarborough in 1983 to win twice on his birthday. Yarborough, Busch and Matt Kenseth are the only drivers to win a Cup race on their birthdays.

Kyle Larson flexed his muscles in the second stage and went on to collect the Stage 2 win—his fourth of the season. While Larson appeared to be in command of the contest—and led a race-high 132 laps—Busch proved that he wasn’t going away quietly.

The No. 18 JGR team pitted on Lap 211. Larson followed a lap later and cycled back to the lead on Lap 225. Five laps later, NASCAR called a caution for debris—from an errant tire lost off of pit road by Reddick’s crew 18 laps earlier. The leaders pitted and Harvick, who entered the pits fourth, dropped to the rear of the field after his tire carrier lost a tire.

With 32 laps remaining, Larson had the lead followed by Denny Hamlin, Busch, and Joey Logano, who gained 10 positions after a two-tire stop. Busch pushed Larson out to a solid lead as Blaney challenged on the bottom lane. Hamlin held onto second but hit the Turn 4 wall eight laps later. He was forced to pit after damaging a right front tire.

After a relatively calm race, the hits just kept coming. Larson, Busch, Blaney, Logano, Ross Chastain and Dillon stayed out while the other leaders pitted. DiBenedetto and Truex took two tires and lined up seventh and eighth for the Lap 250 restart. Three laps later, Dillon slid into the Turn 4 wall and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., turned up into Austin Cindric for the sixth caution.

Larson held the lead with 10 to go but Keselowski was coming. As Larson moved up to block the No. 2 Ford, Busch retook the lead and Blaney followed. Behind them, Chastain checked up and Christopher Bell plowed into the back of the No. 42 Chevy, became unstable and collected both JTG Daugherty Chevys—Stenhouse and Ryan Preece.

Busch retained the point for a green-white-checkered finish with teammate Truex in tow. Blaney was second on the outside lane. As the field came through turns 1 and 2, Larson continued to nudge the No. 12 Ford. Blaney became unstable and went around. Despite dominating the race, Larson left Kansas with a 19th-place finish.

“My plan was just to push him as hard as I could and try and be with him on the backstretch to shove him and hopefully get them guys racing in front of me or potentially get inside or outside for the lead somehow,” said Larson, who lost the lead and the win to Blaney at Atlanta. “I had just planned on pushing him really hard, and obviously I did that and got him sideways and ended up getting us both in the wall.

“Probably should have just laid off once I got to the corner and hopefully a run came to where I could get to his back bumper on the backstretch. Hate that I screwed that up and cost ourselves a good finish.”

With a push from Truex, Busch was able to extend his advantage to .336-seconds at the line. After winning just one race in 2020, Busch took time to reflect on the moment.

“It’s hard sometimes,” Busch said. “When you go through the lows, you go through the disappointment, you go through the dejection and the non-understanding of just whether or not you can still do it. There’s a sense of doubt there for sure. You just have to keep persevering, keep digging and putting your focus forward to be able to come out here and win this thing.

“Thanks to all the fans here at Kansas Speedway, it’s awesome to have people back and you guys coming out and supporting us for what we can do with the rules right now. Thanks to my team, everybody at Toyota, TRD – the M&M’s Camry was awesome today. Ben Beshore, it’s his first win as a crew chief. Happy for him, happy for my guys – let’s celebrate.”