The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series headed back home this past Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It was the fifth race of the 2017 season.
Kyle Busch scored back to back wins and earned his 48th career truck series win, his seventh at Charlotte. Busch led three times for 90 laps. After the race, Busch spoke about the back to back wins.
“It means a lot,” he said. “These guys, they pour their hearts and souls into our trucks and what we do with our Toyota Tundras. It’s awesome to get Cessna back to back wins here and back to victory lane again and of course just a true testament to Rowdy Manufacturing, everybody in the chassis shop doing a fantastic job and Kyle Busch Motorsports, all the guys going home. Everyone on this 51 team, they’ve done a great job.
“I can’t say enough about Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) and everybody on the 4 (Christopher Bell) as well as Marcus (Richmond, crew chief) on the 18 (Noah Gragson). We’re all really working as a cohesive group and guys are doing a great job. For us to be out front most of the laps tonight, it was fun. It was challenging there that middle section of the race. That was kind of chaotic. I didn’t know what was going on half the time. We made it through there and got to the front and was able to win this thing. Just real proud of the whole team effort.”
Johnny Sauter earned his fourth top-five of the season. Sauter led twice for 22 laps before finishing second behind Kyle Busch.
“This was a good night for us,” Sauter said. “It’s typically a place I struggle at. Our Allegiant Travel Chevy was phenomenal in that second stage. We restarted around 13th and we were in the lead after 10-12 laps. I felt like this race track was going to go free late but it didn’t. I needed more front grip. Obviously where you restart is important and I wanted to be on the top. We’ve got a little bit of work to do to make our stuff a little bit better but I’m really proud of our effort tonight.”
After finishing third, Christopher Bell now has four top fives this season.
Bell was disappointed, saying, “I struggled on restarts. I don’t know why. One time I’d spin the tires, the next time I wouldn’t. I just had trouble getting going. I’m pretty bummed I finished third with a second-place truck but (crew chief) Rudy (Fugle) did a great job with everything. We had a really fast truck. We really should’ve finished second but I’m glad the boss was able to win.”
Ryan Truex had a solid run and earned his third top 10 of the season with a fourth-place finish, followed by Timothy Peters in fifth place.
Matt Crafton finished sixth, giving him one top five and three top 10’s for the 2017 season. Grant Enfinger (seventh) has two top 10’s and Ben Rhodes finished eighth after his disappointment at Kansas the week before.
Noah Gragson earned his second top 10 of the season by coming home in the ninth position while Parker Kligerman rounded out the top 10.
Other notables – Chase Briscoe- 11th, Austin Cindric- 13th, T.J. Bell- 14th, J.J. Yeley-15th, Justin Haley-17th, John Hunter Nemechek-22nd, Regan Smith-29th, Kaz Grala-30th and Brandon Jones-31st.
There were nine cautions for 38 laps and 10 lead change among eight drivers.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series takes this weekend off, before heading to Dover International Speedway for the running of the Bar Harbor 200 on June 2.
