Tundra driver Kyle Busch crossed the finish line first in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Kentucky Speedway.
Busch led two times for 61 laps, including the final 19 laps.
Busch picked up his 29th NCWTS victory this evening — including his 23rd win driving a Tundra.
The 26-year old earned his 98th NASCAR national touring series win — moving him into third-place on NASCAR’s all-time win list.
Tonight’s win was Busch’s fifth this season. He picked up first-place trophies at Phoenix, Nashville, Dover and Kansas earlier this season.
Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) now has six wins in 2011 and the team has not finished worse than sixth in 10 races.
Brendan Gaughan’s third-place finish marked his highest-ever finish in a Tundra. Gaughan’s Germain Racing teammate, Todd Bodine, finished fourth.
Other Toyota drivers in the field were David Starr (8th), Travis Kvapil (10th), Max Papis (11th), Justin Lofton (15th), Timothy Peters (16th), Miguel Paludo (21st), John King (28th), Josh Richards (29th) and Johanna Long (36th).
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Dollar General Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports Finishing Position: 1st How was tonight’s race? “It’s been a long day, first of all. Good thing I skipped the first morning practice otherwise I would have about another 20 laps in me. I can’t say enough about these guys on this KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) team. Everybody that pitches in to this deal makes it happen. It’s fun for us to come out here. It’s fun for all these guys — Eric Phillips (crew chief), Rick Ren (general manager) and everybody that does a good job for us. It was looking to be a (No.) 3 (Austin Dillon) truck night and then he had his problems, I don’t even know what happened. Then the (No.) 22 (Joey Coulter) was coming on me and I said ‘Here comes another one.’ And the caution come out and saved us — he would have passed us. We never give up. That’s our mentality. We might not have the fastest truck tonight, but we certainly gave it our all.”
Was it difficult starting from the rear of the field? “We had to go to the back and it wasn’t that big of a deal. We ended up having a really good truck that would get us through the first half of the field there and then we just kind of kept working on it. It was really loose in and kind of tight center exit, and we tried making some changes to it and it got better, but then there late in going in the end of the race we tightened it up a little bit more for the short run for the entry and kind of hurt my center and my off. Those guys were really running me down and we’re a lot faster than I was — the (No.) 3 (Austin Dillon), the (No.) 22 (Joey Coulter), maybe a couple of others — but they had problems. Whatever we had riding with us tonight was certainly a blessing and got us to victory lane. The caution came out perfect and we had two really good restarts there with some guys who were a little anxious maybe and spun their tires, so we just had to make sure we didn’t spin ours and get good acceleration down the front straightaway and make two good, solid laps. ”
How was the final restart with unfamiliar faces around your truck? “The second to last one was with some unfamiliar (ones) too. The last one, yeah the last one those guys — Jason White. Jason was on my inside there. I know these guys are racing for their lives trying to get their first win. We were able to just motor on and get a better restart than they did and not spin our tires as much and accelerate forward. Again, just a great night for all of us. Thank all these guys, they did a good job for me all weekend. Hopefully, this is just a start. Maybe we can have a couple more this weekend. We’ll see.”
How does it feel to get your 29th NCWTS win? “This is pretty cool. I can’t say enough about all the guys on this Kyle Busch Motorsports team. They gave me a fast Dollar General Tundra tonight. It might not have been the best truck. It was certainly fast enough at the end there when it mattered. We got some good restarts there and stayed out of the trouble behind us. It’s a big program and there’s a lot of people and that’s why we’re able to come to the race track.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Dollar General Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports (continued) Do you feel comfortable at Kentucky Speedway? “This place — you never get a comfort here at Kentucky. It’s such a hard race track. Turn three is just my Achilles heel. It’s killing me. I think it has been all weekend. I’d like to be able to get faster and I’m working towards doing that. We just got to work on things that will help me.”
BRENDAN GAUGHAN, No. 62 South Point Hotel & Casino Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing Finishing Position: 3rd What are your thoughts on tonight’s race? “We went back, forward, back forward. We tore the right side off our Tundra midway through that race and we had to stop about five times and actually beat the front end back out and the splitter back out because it was dragging. The boys on pit road did a great job. Bryan Berry (crew chief), the last call — him and I have been together a long time and we think very much alike — with about 30 to go we stopped for the last time and I had a funny feeling he was going to say, ‘Let’s do two tires,’ so I turned on the left front blowers and tried to cool those tires down as much as I could. He said, ‘Don’t slide,’ and I knew what he was talking about. We went out, put barely enough gas in it. He and I think so much alike and it made up the difference.” How do you feel about your finish? “Happy as hell. Our motor was great. I just told our engine tuner that we ran this baby on that last restart red every gear, put it at nine grand and just kept on going. I love my restarts. I do a little bit different restart stuff than most other people in Toyotas or other makes and that’s why it pays off right there — great restart. I learned from (Ron) Hornaday and (Jack) Sprague years ago. I was hoping we would get the (No.) 29 (Parker Kilgerman) to smack the (No.) 18 (Busch) a little and maybe get us the ‘W,’ but we’ll take third right now.”
How did you gain so many positions on the final restart? “We have a little bit different transmission ratio and do a little bit, some stuff I learned from racing in the off road years, years ago, and I paid a lot of attention early in my career to Ron Hornaday and Jack Sprague and really liked how they did it. They always crushed people and I learned a lot back then and when you’re up near the front it really pays off. What did I pass? Four guys in one lap? That’s what it’s all about. The Germain Racing team — this is what we came here to do, third and fourth. That’s what’s it’s supposed to be.”
TODD BODINE, No. 30 Georgia Boot Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing Finishing Position: 4th Was your setup off to start the race? “We missed the setup bad. It was just not good. We kept making adjustments and we kept coming in and working on it and we never give up. That’s what we’re about a Germain Racing, we don’t give up. We had a new sponsor on our truck tonight, Georgia Boot, and we wanted to have a good run and here we are fourth.”
DAVID STARR, No. 81 Akzo Nobel/ASI Limited/Zachry Toyota Tundra, SS Green Light Racing Finishing Position: 8th
TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 5 International Truck-Monaco RVs Toyota Tundra, Randy Moss Motorsports Finishing Position: 10th
MAX PAPIS, No. 9 GEICO Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing Finishing Position: 11th
JUSTIN LOFTON, No. 46 CollegeComplete.com Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing Finishing Position: 15th
TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing Finishing Position: 16th
MIGUEL PALUDO, No. 7 STEMCO-Duroline Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing Finishing Position: 21st What happened in your accident? “Man, the last restart I tried to concentrate and do a really good restart and I did it, but I got caught up by the (No.) 8 (Nelson Piquet Jr.) inside of me and I couldn’t lift, so when we went into turn three I left a lot of room and unfortunately I think he got sideways. I know it’s not intentional, but it’s really bad for us, especially because we’re looking for the points and try be back in pace. We had a good truck and looking forward to Iowa.”
JOHN KING, No. 16 Edward Jones Investments Toyota Tundra Finishing Position: 28th
JOSH RICHARDS, No. 15 Joy Mining Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports Finishing Position: 29th
JOHANNA LONG, No. 20 Panhandle Grading & Paving Toyota Tundra, Panhandle Motorsports Finishing Position: 36th
