The Kyle Busch Show reigns supreme at Charlotte

Kyle Busch returned to the Truck Series after a short hiatus to race in the fifth and final event in which he is allowed to compete and went straight to victory lane at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It wasn’t easy for Busch, however, as he had to hold off the field in a late race restart with three to go including a hard-charging Brennan Poole for the 56th win of his career.

“Our truck was really, really good,” Busch told MRN Radio. “These guys prepared such a fast Tundra for me and I wanna thank Cessna Beechcraft, Toyota TRD, Rowdy Manufacturing. You know, it takes a whole group effort. Rudy (Fugle) and these guys are awesome at what they do, give me great pieces each and every time we come out here. We have not ever this year not unloaded great, but we really work on our stuff and improved it through practice and even into the race. You know there at the end, I didn’t want to have that last restart at the end. I knew being on older tires were going to be a handful for me. It looked liked it was for a couple of the other guys. Not a very good restart, but I was still able to hold them off thankfully.”

The North Carolina Education Lottery 200 got underway shortly after 8:30 p.m./ET. Matt Crafton qualified on the pole for the second straight week in a row and the 15th of his career.

There were three stages of 30/30/74 laps to equal the 134 lap race. Todd Gilliland took the lead after the start, but Ben Rhodes took the lead from Gilliland on Lap 2.

The first incident of the night happened early with Natalie Decker who had right side damage after making contact with the wall. Matters only got worse for the No. 54 DGR-Crosley team as they would bring out the first caution of the night on Lap 23 when Decker wrecked off Turn 2. During the pit stops, Angela Ruch was penalized a lap for pitting outside the box.

The restart for Stage 1 came with two to go and featured a thrilling finish. Pole sitter, Crafton, was able to rocket back to the front and pass Todd Gilliland off Turn 2 to win Stage 1.

Stage 2 began on lap 36 and went to lap 60. It was a relatively clean stage and saw no cautions. Eventual race winner, Busch took the lead on Lap 40.

There was a minor incident that involved Dover winner Johnny Sauter, as he barely wrecked off Turn 4. However, there were no issues for the all-time wins leader Busch, as he would go on to win Stage 2 which ended on Lap 60.

There was an issue with Chad Finley who slowed and was way off the pace. It was later reported that Finley was out of gas at the end of the stage, which eventually cost him a top-10 stage finish. Grant Enfinger also stalled on pit road as well during pit stops.

Stage 3 was restarted with 67 to go with two Truck Series veterans Kyle Busch and Matt Crafton.

With 62 to go, Codie Rohrbaugh smacked the wall off Turn 2 to bring out the fourth caution. Another caution took place with 57 to go, as rookie Gus Dean hit the wall off Turn 2 as well. Korbin Forrister and Ruch were also involved. During the caution, Ross Chastain, Enfinger and Gilliland, among others, went in to pit while Busch and the front half of the field stayed out.

The sixth caution came out for the No. 49 of Stefan Parsons who hit the wall. Parsons would wind up 24th.

After the restart with 44 to go, there was a wide variety of leaders. Sauter, who had issues earlier with his truck found himself in the lead for a short while before Busch would take the lead once again with 39 to go.

The North Carolina Education Lottery 200 would go on a long green flag run of 37 laps until the final caution broke out with eight to go for last year’s champion Brett Moffitt, who had a right rear tire come apart.

This would eventually set up a late race restart with three to go. Two-time champion, Sauter could not get going on the restart and jacked up the field who was behind him. Busch did not get a great restart either as he found Poole chasing him down for the upset win. However, Busch would continue his winning streak by going five for five this year.

“No, no I don’t think so,” Busch told MRN in regards to having such a dominating streak in 2019. “You know, a couple of years ago, I shot for it and wanted to have it, but only got two or three (races). Overall, I wish I could do more. It’s frustrating that you’re limited because you’re too good at what you do. I would love to be able to come out here some more and be able to win with this team, and all my guys at Kyle Busch Motorsports and for our partners here at Toyota, Cessna Beechcraft and everybody else.”

There were seven cautions for 31 laps with nine leaders among 19 lead changes during the race. Busch led five times for 102 laps and collected his eighth Truck Series win at Charlotte Motor Speedway and his fifth of 2019.

This will be Busch’s last Truck Series race of the 2019 season.

Up Next: The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series will take two-weeks off before returning to on-track action on Friday, June 7.

Gander Outdoors Truck Series Race Number 8
Race Results for the 17th Annual North Carolina Education Lottery 200 – Friday, May 17, 2019
Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, NC – 1.5 – Mile Paved
Total Race Length – 134 Laps – 201. Miles

Fin Str No Driver Team Laps S1Pos S2Pos Pts Status
1 8 51 Kyle Busch(i) Cessna Toyota 134 7 1 0 Running
2 17 30 Brennan Poole Madvapes Toyota 134 0 0 35 Running
3 2 52 Stewart Friesen Halmar International Chevrolet 134 6 6 44 Running
4 5 99 Ben Rhodes Carolina Nut Ford 134 4 8 43 Running
5 1 88 Matt Crafton Ideal Door/Menards Ford 134 1 4 49 Running
6 20 16 Austin Hill United Rentals Toyota 134 0 0 31 Running
7 3 4 Todd Gilliland Mobil 1 Toyota 134 2 10 40 Running
8 15 15 Anthony Alfredo # STEELSMITH/Friends of Jacelyn Toyota 134 0 0 29 Running
9 9 98 Grant Enfinger Protect the Harvest/Curb Records Ford 134 3 3 44 Running
10 13 45 Ross Chastain(i) TruNorth/Paul Jr. Designs Chevrolet 134 5 2 0 Running
11 4 18 Harrison Burton # Safelite AutoGlass Toyota 134 9 9 30 Running
12 10 2 Sheldon Creed # Chevrolet Accessories Chevrolet 134 8 7 32 Running
13 25 2 Tyler Dippel # Jersey Filmmaker Chevrolet 134 0 0 24 Running
14 22 97 Jesse Little JJL Motorsports Ford 134 0 0 23 Running
15 28 3 Jordan Anderson Bommarito Automotive Group Chevrolet 134 0 0 22 Running
16 23 56 Timmy Hill(i) Southern Freight Services Chevrolet 134 0 0 0 Running
17 12 13 Johnny Sauter Tenda Heal Ford 134 10 0 21 Running
18 18 42 Chad Finley Strutmasters.com/Air Lift Chevrolet 134 0 0 19 Running
19 6 24 Brett Moffitt JuniorJohnsonMidnightMoonMoonshine Chev 133 0 5 24 Running
20 7 4 Cory Roper Preferred industrial Contractors Inc Ford 133 0 0 17 Running
21 29 22 Austin Wayne Self GO TEXAN/AM Technical Solutions Chevrolet 133 0 0 16 Running
22 30 20 Spencer Boyd 1A Auto Chevrolet 133 0 0 15 Running
23 31 44 Angela Ruch FOX Nation/The Ruch Life Chevrolet 132 0 0 14 Running
24 16 49 Stefan Parsons Charlotte Strong Chevrolet 132 0 0 13 Running
25 27 7 Korbin Forrister All Out Toyota 129 0 0 12 Running
26 19 12 Gus Dean # LG Air Conditioning Technologies Chevrolet 123 0 0 11 Running
27 11 17 Tyler Ankrum # May’s Hawaii Toyota 111 0 0 10 Vibration
28 32 33 Josh Reaume HertzKompressoren/P&BCompressor Chev 98 0 0 9 Running
29 14 9 Codie Rohrbaugh Grant County Mulch Chevrolet 72 0 0 8 Accident
30 26 8 Camden Murphy Chevrolet 40 0 0 7 Suspension
31 21 54 Natalie Decker # N29 Technologies LLC Toyota 32 0 0 6 Accident
32 24 87 Joe Nemechek ROMCO/TMS Titanium Chevrolet 19 0 0 5 Rear Gear

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

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