BRISTOL, Tenn. — While Kyle Busch was the dominant driver, he had to overcome a speeding penalty, which he did with ease, ran down and passed Matt Crafton, and even held him off on an overtime restart to win at Thunder Valley.
Busch was busted for speeding under the second stage break caution and restarted at the tail-end of the field on the ensuing restart. He made quick work of the field, catching and passing Crafton for the race lead with 33 laps to go to score his 49th career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory in 140 career starts.
Crafton finished second and John Hunter Nemechek rounded out the podium.
Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes rounded out the top-five.
Johnny Sauter, Christopher Bell, Parker Kligerman, Austin Cindric and Brandon Jones rounded out the top-10.
RACE SUMMARY
Busch led the field to the green flag at 10:44 p.m. He led every lap of the first stage on his way to winning it on Lap 56.
Cindric took the lead under the caution and restarted the race leader. A lap after the Lap 64 restart, however, Crafton got to his corner panel and loosened him. Taking the lead on Lap 65. But Busch ran him down, and lapped traffic allowed him to pass Crafton exiting Turn 2, retake the lead and win the second stage on Lap 121.
He was busted for speeding, which set up the run to the finish.
NUTS & BOLTS
The race lasted one hour, 13 minutes and five seconds, at an average speed of 88.829 mph. There were six lead changes among four different drivers and five cautions for 31 laps.
Bell leaves with a 42-point lead over Sauter.
