BROOKLYN, Mich. (June 13, 2015) — In a race that saw action all over the track on Saturday, perhaps the most impressive pass came with four laps remaining in the Great Clips 250 Benefiting Paralyzed Veterans of America.
Kyle Busch chased down Chase Elliott with less than 10 laps remaining to put pressure on the 2014 Series Champion. Busch passed Elliott with four laps remaining and held on for the victory.
It marked Busch’s 71st victory in the NASCAR XFINITY Series
Busch called it a very emotional win on his first trip back in the XFINITY series this year.
“You never know when it’s your last, obviously that’s for sure after Daytona and what happened,” he added. “It is certainly really good to be back in Victory Lane and I can’t say enough about my wife and my family, everyone that pushed me so hard to get me back in the race cars and doing what I love to do.”
Busch had to fight off a number of attacks from a bunch of very competitive cohorts, especially late in the race when he got around Chase Elliott with four laps remaining to win by just under one half second. Kyle Larson ended up third, followed by current series points leader Chris Buescher, Elliott Sadler, Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano, both of whom appeared on the verge of winning late in the race before coming in contact with each other with seven laps remaining.
Harvick had cut down under Logano, then moved up rather unexpectedly, with both drivers brushing the wall and falling to sixth and seventh, respectively, where they would finish. That gave the lead to Elliott, but not for long. Four laps later Busch made a bold move, passing four cars with help from a push by Harvick.
“Our car was really fast and I felt like if we could just get to clean air then we could probably hold everyone off,” Busch explained, “but it was going to be hard to pass that 22 (Logano). Fortunately, Harvick took care of that for us.”
Harvick took full responsibility for the scrape with Logano. “It was totally my fault,” he said.
Logano, who led a race high 54 laps, unhappily agreed with Harvick.
“We were racing for a win here and it just seems like he (Harvick) drove in there pretty hard in trying to slide me,” Logano added. “I drove up in there too and he got loose underneath me and got into my left rear and up we both went into the wall. I was racing hard and he just drove over his head a little bit.”
Next up Sunday is the Quicken Loans 400. Tickets are available by phone at 800-354-1010.
