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[/media-credit]With a last lap pass and some fender rubbing with Kyle Busch, Cale Gale was able to become the ninth first-time winner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series by winning the Ford Ecoboost 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Meanwhile, Buescher would finish 13th to win his first ever championship, six points ahead of Timothy Peters.
“We had a shot last year,” he said. “Put a lot of work in to it in the off-season and won it. This is the biggest thing that I have done in racing.”
Buescher would avoid an incident with four laps to go between Kyle Larson and Ty Dillon and keep himself in the hunt all night long to take the championship.
“It was close and Ty (Dillon) and everybody at RCR, they were giving us a run for it and I guess he crowded the 4 (Larson) and they went up into the wall,” Buescher said. “We were putting everything into this Great Clips Chevy, sliding around – about slid into the wall but managed to hold on. This truck won us four races, and now it has won us a championship.”
Buescher added that he didn’t expect to win his first race and championship in the same season.
“If I had known that getting in the married in the off-season, I would have done it a long time ago,” he said. “That’s another thing that makes this special. Kristy gives me all the support I need. Mr. and Mrs. Turner gave me everything that I needed.”
It also marks the first championship for Turner Motorsports.
Dillon and Larson would make contact as Larson dived into turn four underneath Dillon while Dillon slid down slightly, resulting in the contact with both drivers hitting the wall.
“I hate it had to come down to getting into the wall like that, feel bad for my guys,” he said. “They worked hard this year. But what a year! We laid it all on the line. Not a lot of rookies get to have a shot like this to win a championship in their first year.”
The 2012 Rookie of the Year finishes the season fourth in points, 24 points behind Buescher. At the time of the wreck, Dillon had closed the gap between himself and Buescher to a single point.
“We tried to hit the home run in the bottom of the ninth,” Dillon said.
Dillon would be credited with a 25th place finish.
“It’s tough I got a point contender there, I was trying to go for a race there,” Larson said. “I had position going into the corner, may had been on the apron a bit. I may be at fault there – I don’t know. It’s just racing – it sucks I took out Ty there, but like I said, it’s just racing.”
Larson would later apologize on twitter.
Watched the replay of the wreck. Feel REALLY bad for @tydillon. I definitely would never wreck someone on purpose. I just drove over my head
— Kyle Larson (@KyleLarsonRacin) November 17, 2012
Also would never do that to help a teammate out. Can’t really express how bad I feel about it all.
— Kyle Larson (@KyleLarsonRacin) November 17, 2012
Ryan Blaney was also collected in the wreck, making hard contact with the outside wall after being tagged by Dillon.
“I’m alright,” he said. “Just knocked the wind out of me there. It’s one of the worst hits when you clipped like that. It wasn’t a bad night, just struggled with speed all night. Was hoping to finish well there.”
That wreck set-up a late race green-white-checkered. Busch would restart as the lead while Gale would make a three-wide pass past both Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter. Gale would then catch Busch on the final lap, getting alongside him down the backstretch.
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[/media-credit]As they came to the checkered flag, Gale would crowd Busch, finishing 0.014 seconds ahead. Gale becomes the 16th different winner this year in the Truck Series.
“I can tell you right now – coming off of four, that’s not my driving style,” Gale said. “It was my first chance to taste NASCAR victory, I had the chance, Kyle Busch was to my outside – I don’t know what’s ahead and I went for it. I’m just a hard racer from Mobile, Alabama.”
Kyle Busch finished second, finishing the 2012 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season with no wins. Busch would say that the last lap “just didn’t matter” and would reveal that Dollar General will not be back with Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) in 2013.
“Just gotta thank Dollar General and Toyota and everybody that supports this program and everything we do,” he said. “Unfortunately, we’re sponsorless for next year, we’re losing these guys – but tough year, just the way things have always gone.”
Joey Coulter would finish third in his last race for Richard Childress Racing to finish third in points, 19 behind Buescher. Coulter will be joining KBM in 2013.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “I can’t say enough about these guys. It’s been an unbelievable two years and tonight as no exception. We worked hard all night. Harold made a good call at the end with those two tires –It wasn’t fun to drive but I just held on.”
Coulter added that he owes everything to RCR as they put him on the map.
“Just forward to making them proud, even though it’s on another team as they gave me the shot,” Coulter added.
Turner Motorsports teammates Nelson Piquet Jr. and Miguel Paludo rounded out the top five.
Sauter finished sixth, followed by Parker Kligerman, Timothy Peters, Justin Lofton and Ross Chastain. Peters would get second in points, six behind Buescher.
“So close, but it has been an awesome year,” he said. “Can’t thank everybody enough at Red Horse Racing. Those guys have worked a lot in the shop. Tonight wasn’t pretty, but it just shows how much our team preservers. We have a lot of momentum going into 2013…..”
