Kyle Busch will leave Kansas Speedway victorious in the Toyota Tundra 250. The Las Vegas native led 91 of 167 circuits of the 250-mile event to capture his 47th career victory in the series. Busch’s journey started from the 10th starting spot.
“It was going to be another one to get away from this. I don’t know what I needed to do and try to get to the luck bank somewhere and buy some, but I can’t find any,” said Busch after the race. “Maybe it’s here at Kansas, who knows. We did the same thing here a couple years, winning the truck race. We won the Cup race last year, so feel like we got a good handle on this place at least when the lights turn on. Really looking forward to tomorrow. Our M&M’s Camry has been fast. I screwed up trying to get too much and going for the pole and lost it there so – man it’s just a lot of mistakes. Little ones here or there. My part, maybe a pit crew guy, maybe Adam (Stevens, crew chief), whoever it may be, we just got to put all the pieces together. It’s such a fickle business, man. We know how hard these things are to win, so glad to get one tonight.”
Busch swept all three stages in Friday’s Toyota Tundra 250 at Kansas. The driver took the lead in the closing laps after race leader Ben Rhodes developed an issue that would end his night. He went to the garage and finished in 23rd.
“You know this was a great win for us, but really it’s a terrible loss for Ben Rhodes,” Busch added after the race. “He had this race won. I was trying everything I could to catch him and run him back down. I could gain a little bit on him and then I’d lose a little bit on him and just kind of went back and forth a little bit. That’s a Rowdy Manufacturing chassis and a KBM body on the 27 (Ben Rhodes) truck so we knew it was going to be tough to beat and it was fast and he was one of the guys we had to race with all night long. He did a phenomenal job. It’s a tough one to lose that way, I know, because I’ve lost them that way as well. But for him to be racing against us and to be doing an awesome job, man, he raced me clean. He did a great job. He got by me. No issues there with lapped traffic and stuff like that. He did a really good race, so it was fun. It’s cool to see young guys like that have great opportunities and to be fast and to make the most of it. It was a battle there, but this Cessna Tundra prevailed and we got to victory lane ourselves. Great job by (crew chief) Bono Manion, everyone on this No. 51 team. This Cessna truck was fast and can’t say enough about NOS Energy Drink, Rowdy Manufacturing, Incredible Bank, all of our partners at KBM.”
Johnny Sauter, who started the evening in third, will take home the runner-up spot in his No. 21 Chevrolet. Sauter came into the night leading the series driver standings by four points over fourth-place finisher and pole sitter Christopher Bell. Bell led 37 laps.
Despite not leading any laps at Kansas, Sauter stayed inside the top 10 all throughout the race.
John Hunter Nemechek captured his second top five finish of the season Friday. Nemechek had a slow start to the season after taking home finishes outside the top 25 in the last two events. In the season opener at Daytona, Nemechek finished third in his No. 8 Chevrolet.
Grant Enfinger spent some time as the race leader in his No. 98 Ride TV Toyota for ThorSport Racing. After starting 15th, Enfinger led 14 laps and later finished 11th. The Alabama native has only one top 10 finish this year.
Johnny Sauter will continue leading the series standings by two points over Christopher Bell. Matt Crafton, Chase Briscoe and Timothy Peters round out the top five in points as the series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The N.C. Education Lottery 200 will take place on Friday, May 19, 2017 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The event will be televised live on FOX Sports 1 at 8:30 p.m. ET. The Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM Channel 90 will have the live radio broadcast.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
- Jake Finch Leads General Tire 200 Wire-to-Wire at Talladega - April 20, 2024
- NCTS: Eckes Scores Second Victory of 2024 at Martinsville - April 5, 2024
- NWMT: Justin Bonsignore Noses Ron Silk for 41st Career Victory at Richmond - March 29, 2024