Kyle Busch continued his run of dominance in the NASCAR XFINITY Series with a dominant win in the Lone Star State.
The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 150 of the 200 laps on his way to taking the checkered flag in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300. It’s his 80th career victory in the series and eighth at Texas Motor Speedway.
“We’ve had some really good runs here over the years,” Busch said after the race, “and we’ve been really fast. This NOS Energy Drink Camry was great. We got our money’s worth out of it and (crew chief Chris) Gayle got his money’s worth out of it, too, on the pit box today. We had to make some adjustments to it and fine-tune on it to make it better and better.”
Defending race winner Erik Jones led 12 laps on his way to a runner-up finish in the No. 20 JGR Toyota and was the highest finishing rookie.
Jones, who had to come back from the rear of the field after a penalty in the pits, said, “Getting the penalty didn’t help but it wasn’t the reason we ran second either. We just didn’t take a big enough swing to free it up (on the final pit stop on Lap 148). The track just tightened up as it rubbered up. Then it got slick again and we didn’t keep up with it enough.”
Brad Keselowski finished third in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Chase Elliott finished fourth in his No. 5 JR Motorsports Chevrolet while Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top-five in his No. 88 JRM Chevrolet.
Justin Allgaier finished sixth in his No. 7 JRM Chevrolet. Elliott Sadler finished seventh in his No. 1 JRM Chevrolet followed by Austin Dillon who finished eighth in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Brandon Jones finished ninth in his No. 33 RCR Chevrolet as Ryan Sieg rounded out the top-10 in his No. 39 RSS Racing Chevrolet.
Seven cars failed to finish the race while 15 finished on the lead lap.
The race lasted two hours, seven minutes and 33 seconds at an average speed of 141.121 mph. There were five cautions for 22 laps and six lead changes among three drivers.
Daniel Suárez leaves Fort Worth with a one-point lead in the points standings.
Complete NXS Race Results at Texas Motor Speedway:
