MARTINSVILLE, Va.– Kyle Busch can now say he owns a Martinsville grandfather clock after scoring the Truck victory at the Virginia paperclip.
The driver of the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota led 123 of the 255 laps on his way to scoring the win in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway. It’s his 45th career victory in the series and first at Martinsville in any series.
Busch spoke about the significance of the win.
“I’ve got a couple owner’s ones (grandfather clock trophies), but never one of my own, so this is just a day that we’ve been looking for for a long, long time. We just haven’t never necessarily had all the pieces go together like they should have and I didn’t know that the pieces we’re going to go together today either the way all them cautions were kind of playing out, the way tire strategy was playing out, when to pit, when not to pit, how to do all of that. Wes (Ward, crew chief) and I we both leaned on each other and we both had no idea, so we just dumbed into this I think, but it all worked out, so this Toyota Tundra was awesome.
“All the guys at KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports), KBM chassis, NOS, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), Joe Gibbs Racing Engines – appreciate them – Camping World, of course, the fans – it’s neat to win here at Martinsville. I love when they do it up here on the front stretch for everyone to be up close and personal.”
John Hunter Nemechek finished runner-up in his No. 8 NEMCO Motorsports Chevrolet. Busch’s teammate, William Byron, finished third in his No. 9 KBM Toyota.
“I was able to hang tough on the outside,” Nemechek said, “get around William (Byron) there at the end. That was the big key for us to finish second — if not we were probably going to lose a couple spots.
“Those restarts were hectic at the end. I just kept spinning the tires on the restarts. We’ve got to go back and look at some things. I could never get to Kyle.”
Nemechek leaves Martinsville with a three-point lead over Parker Kligerman, who finished in eighth place.
Kyle Larson led 79 laps on his way to a fourth-place finish in his No. 24 GMS Racing Chevrolet while Timothy Peters rounded out the top-five in his No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota.
Spencer Gallagher finished sixth in his No. 23 GMSR Chevrolet followed by Matt Crafton who finished seventh in his No. 88 ThorSport Racing Toyota and Parker Kligerman in eighth in his No. 92 Ricky Benton Racing Ford. Cameron Hayley led 11 laps on his way to a ninth-place finish in his No. 13 TSR Toyota and Rico Abreu rounded out the top-10 in his No. 98 TSR Toyota.
The race lasted two hours, 10 minutes and 12 seconds at an average speed of 61.811 mph. There were eight lead changes among four different drivers and 11 cautions for 66 laps. There were two red flags for a total of 13 minutes and 12 seconds. Nemechek leaves with a three-point lead over Kligerman in the points standings.
Complete Finishing Order – NCWTS Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway
