Kyle Busch led all but one lap as he cleaned out the casino in the XFINITY Series at Las Vegas.
The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 199 of the 200 laps to score the victory in the Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It’s his 78th career victory in the XFINITY Series and first at the track for the Las Vegas native.
“It feels really good for as good as this car was,” he said. “It was really, really fast. This is 2-for-2 and that’s pretty cool, and to check this one off the box is awesome, too.”
Busch also commented about winning on his home track and holding off Suárez for the win.
“We were worried about fuel, but more so we more so worried about (Daniel) Suarez. He was on me there at the end, he was really, really fast. I can’t say enough about all these guys, everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing prepares some really fast Camrys and this NOS Energy Drink Camry was the best. It felt really, really good. I wish for as good as we were at the beginning of the race in the beginning of the run and end of the run, I was hoping we’d have some long run speed there at the end. Just wasn’t showing. Suarez was definitely faster than us when he got clean track. If roles were reversed, he would have been pulling away from me and I wasn’t going to be able to catch him. All in all just a great day for us in one-two-three and for me to get a victory here in my home town, check one off the list – that’s pretty awesome.”
Daniel Suárez tried to make a charge towards the end on his teammate, but he couldn’t close the gap and took his No. 19 JGR Toyota to a runner-up finish.
“Right there at the end, maybe, it took me a while to figure out how to be fast through traffic with a loose race car. But, honestly, in the last 10-15 laps we were the fastest race car there, so proud of my guys and looking forward for next weekend,” Suárez said.
He leaves sin city with the points lead.
Rookie Erik Jones came back from a two-lap deficit to finish third in his No. 20 JGR Toyota.
“Just wish we could have been in contention all day,” Jones said. He felt that he had “a car that could run with Kyle at times.”
Chase Elliott finished fourth in his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet while Austin Dillon rounded out the top-five in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
Brandon Jones finished sixth in his No. 33 RCR Chevrolet followed by Ty Dillon in seventh place in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet. Elliott Sadler finished eighth in his No. 1 JRM Chevrolet, Justin Allgaier finished ninth in his No. 7 JRM Chevrolet and Brendan Gaughan rounded out the top-10 in his No. 62 RCR Chevrolet.
There was one red flag for 19 minutes for a three-car wreck in turn 2 with 63 laps remaining. The No. 25 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet of Cody Ware broke loose, turned and slammed the wall driver-side. His disabled car rolled down into the middle of the track, but the caution had yet to be thrown. Slowing down to avoid him, Darrell Wallace Jr. t-boned the front of Ware’s car with the left front of his car and went spinning. Justin Marks went to the high side of the track and tagged the wall in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. He came back down the track and rammed into the rear of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.
“That second impact was pretty good too,” Wallace said. “I am here and talking to you. All good. I hate it for my guys. I was having so much fun here. Ten laps ago I was thinking how good this place was to me. Guess I spoke too soon.”
Wallace said while his spotter didn’t have enough time to warn him of the disabled Ware car, he said that “(He) did a hell of a job as he always does” and that there was “no blame on anybody. By the time he caught it I was already in pitch and by the time I slowed down it just jumped out from under me. It is unfortunate circumstances, that is all.”
Eleven cars finished the race on the lead lap. The race lasted two hours, three minutes and 47 seconds at an average speed of 145.415 mph. The race had two lead changes among two different drivers and three cautions for 15 laps.
Complete Results:
