Kyle Busch earned his 80th career and fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series win on the season during the 200-lap O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. He did so by leading 150 laps, the highest of the 40 total race starters. The 30 year old has now won four of the last five Xfinity races. This trip to a fiery victory lane is also Busch’s eighth at Fort Worth.
In a post-race Toyota release, Busch had high praise for his NXS crew chief Chris Gayle and his pit crew, the guys who also service his Sprint Cup ride. “Good calls from the pit box for sure,” Busch said. “Chris Gayle got his money’s worth tonight, he had to work on this thing for me and make it better all night long.”
At one point during the race, Busch felt the breath of his teammate Erik Jones and the No.42 of Kyle Larson on the back of his neck but slowly but surely, the No. 18 JGR driver returned to the top spot. “The NOS Energy Drink Camry had speed but there through the middle of the race, Erik Jones caught me and and Kyle (Larson) was ahead of me at that point, Busch said. “We fine tuned and worked on our balance a little bit.”
After starting second on the grid and despite an early pit road penalty, Erik Jones managed to finish in the runner-up position on the 1.5-mile Texas oval. The driver of the No. 20 Game Stop/Turtle Beach Toyota also finished the highest of the Sunoco rookie contenders. “A good day for us and I thought we definitely had the car to do it today,” Jones said post-race. “That penalty kind of put us back to the point where it got hard to make adjustments and keep up with the track, but just too tight at the end.”
Jones doesn’t totally blame the pit road issues for coming up short to Victory Lane. “That penalty wasn’t the reason we ran second by any means,” he explained. “We just need to do a little bit better job adjusting late in the race. We were able to get around him (Busch) on our second or third run there and then got the penalty. Second isn’t where we wanted to be, we want to be able to beat the 18 one of these days. We’re definitely the closest we have been.”
By finishing third on the board, Brad Keselowski earned his 13th top-10 finish in 17 Xfinity starts at TMS. The driver of the No. 22 Discount Ford explained his hairy final restart in the post-race Ford release. “Part of the Xfinity Series is you just push and try to get runs,” he said. “Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. It looks really good when it works and it looks really bad when it doesn’t but that’s part of it. When they are running the cars wide-open, it’s just like the local go-kart track where some cars are faster than others and we’re starting to get this one a little bit closer to being able to run with those Gibbs cars and that feels good.”
NASCAR Xfinity competition resumes next weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. The race also begins the Dash 4 Cash. Coverage is scheduled to start at 1:45 PM ET on FS1, PRN and Sirius XM 90.
Race Results
- Kyle Busch
- Erik Jones
- Brad Keselowski
- Chase Elliott
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Justin Allgaier
- Elliott Sadler
- Austin Dillon
- Brandon Jones
- Ryan Sieg
Coming off the ranch, I didn’t have a motorsports background but my passion was and still is very strong. My first taste of NASCAR came at the age of seven while waiting for music videos to come on the old TNN network. As I grew up, I pursued other interest but eventually rediscovered cars going left when I found the SPEED channel during the 2011-2012 offseason.
I didn’t decide I wanted to pursue a career in NASCAR until the summer of 2012. I’m not a wrench head or strong enough for a pit crew so media was the next best thing. At the beginning of 2013, I started going to races and making connections within the sport. I also studied Motorsports Management at Sports Management Worldwide. Although I love what happens on the track, I’ve always been interested in what goes on behind the scenes and I’ve gotten to know many people throughout the radio, TV and digital media world.
While I’m a long time writer, 2015 was my first year actually covering the sport with www.nascarfemale.com . I also became a media correspondent for Raceline. I’ve been able to help the TV show gain recognition on social media. My current goal is to acquire more experience in covering NASCAR and move up the media ladder. Outside of motorsports, I have been an equine-sports statistician for 16 years.
I currently reside in Gillette, WY where I’m still involved with horses. I enjoy riding them, rodeo, swimming, traveling and meeting people.
Email Me
I didn’t decide I wanted to pursue a career in NASCAR until the summer of 2012. I’m not a wrench head or strong enough for a pit crew so media was the next best thing. At the beginning of 2013, I started going to races and making connections within the sport. I also studied Motorsports Management at Sports Management Worldwide. Although I love what happens on the track, I’ve always been interested in what goes on behind the scenes and I’ve gotten to know many people throughout the radio, TV and digital media world.
While I’m a long time writer, 2015 was my first year actually covering the sport with www.nascarfemale.com . I also became a media correspondent for Raceline. I’ve been able to help the TV show gain recognition on social media. My current goal is to acquire more experience in covering NASCAR and move up the media ladder. Outside of motorsports, I have been an equine-sports statistician for 16 years.
I currently reside in Gillette, WY where I’m still involved with horses. I enjoy riding them, rodeo, swimming, traveling and meeting people.
Email Me
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