By TMS Media Relations | Oct 31, 2014
FORT WORTH, Texas – Kyle Busch opened his quest for a rare triple sweep in successful fashion Friday evening by capturing the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series WinStar World Casino & Resort 350 in a green/white-checkered overtime finish at Texas Motor Speedway.
Busch (No. 51 ToyotaCare Toyota), who led a race-high 80 of 152 laps, was cruising to victory when two late cautions put a Halloween scare into his bid to secure his seventh win in just nine NCWTS starts this season. With five laps remaining, a caution came out for an accident involving John Wes Townley, Tayler Malsam and Justin Jennings, and Busch elected to pit for four fresh tires.
German Quiroga (No. 77 Otterbox Toyota) stayed out with several others and inherited the lead while Busch restarted ninth. Busch carved through the field on the first green-flag lap, moving up to third and then to second on the ensuing lap. With two to go, Johnny Sauter (No. 98 Smokey Mountain/Curb Records Toyota), following contact on the frontstretch with Jeb Burton (No. 13 Estes/Carolina Nut Company Toyota), was sent spinning across the infield grass that led to another caution and set the stage for the overtime, two-lap shootout.
Busch got a strong restart on the outside and took command of the lead coming out of Turn 2. He was pulling away with one lap to go when Quiroga, who last pitted on Lap 108 and was on worn tires, hit the wall in Turn 2 to force the conclusion of the final lap to finish under caution. Burton finished second and Timothy Peters (No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota) was third.
Busch’s series-leading seventh win was his third truck win at Texas Motor Speedway that pushed his career total in the series to 42. It also was the 12th victory overall for Kyle Busch Motorsports in 20 starts this season, tying the series record for season victories set by Ultra Motorsports in 2001.
Busch, who is attempting his 10th triple at Texas Motor Speedway, will focus next on Saturday’s Nationwide Series O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge and then Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series AAA Texas 500. He will qualify at 11:15 a.m. CT Saturday and then tackle the 200-lap, 300-mile NNS race at 2:30 p.m. Busch will then start ninth in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500, which begins at 2 p.m.
The Kyle Busch Motorsports tandem of Busch and Darrell Wallace Jr. (No. 54 ToyotaCare Toyota) dominated the early going as the two combined to lead 102 of the first 111 laps. The tandem became a solo act when Busch and Wallace Jr. were running 1-2, respectively, before Wallace’s engine let loose and his strong evening went up in a plume of smoke with 40 to go of the originally scheduled 147 laps.
Busch held the lead from Lap 98 to 138 and was in command until he relinquished the advantage on the late caution when Quiroga took over for 12 laps. Busch led for the fifth and final time on the two overtime laps and his laps led race total allowed him to overtake Todd Bodine for third place for career NCWTS laps led at Texas Motor Speedway with 356.
Matt Crafton (No. 88 Goof Off/Menards Toyota) moved a step closer to becoming the first back-to-back Camping World Truck Series champion as his fifth-place finish extended his points lead to 23 over Ryan Blaney (No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford), who finished ninth.
