Kyle Busch took home his 60th career Truck Series victory on Saturday afternoon at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Busch started second and led the majority of the race by leading 102 of the 130 laps before grabbing the checkered flag.
“It’s just a great opportunity to race in great stuff with KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports), Cessna Beechcraft. This Toyota Tundra was awesome. I can’t say enough about my guys, everybody at Kyle Busch Motorsports,” Busch said.
Stage 1:
When the race started, it was all Kyle Busch Motorsports up front with John Hunter Nemechek and Busch swapping the lead multiple times. Early on, two-time champion Matt Crafton led the first three laps before Busch took the lead. Busch led through the competition caution on Lap 15 and continued to lead until the last lap of Stage 1. Nemechek then passed Busch off Turn 4 and would grab the stage victory. Busch, Austin Hill, Stewart Friesen, Ross Chastain, Derek Kraus, Crafton, Zane Smith, Sheldon Creed, and Johnny Sauter completed the Top 10.
Stage 2:
Stage 2 was a carbon copy of Stage 1 with Nemechek once again winning the stage. During the stage break, there were four drivers that were penalized. Derek Kraus was penalized for a crew member over the wall too soon, Friesen was penalized for an uncontrolled tire and Tyler Ankrum and Austin Wayne Self were penalized for being too fast on pit road.
Stage 3:
As the final stage started to wind down, pit road began to heat up with the final round of green-flag pit stops that occurred with 33 laps to go. Race leader Busch didn’t make his pit stop until three laps later with 30 laps to go. Around 23 to go when the pit stops were complete, Busch cycled back to the top of the leaderboard and maintained the lead for the remainder of the race to win his sixth Truck Series Atlanta win.
“It’s great to get back to Victory Lane. It’s cool to get back to Victory Lane in Billy Ballew’s (former NCWTS team owner) backyard here in Atlanta. We carried the Billy Ballew Motorsports decal today. If you need a deal on a sweet used car, go see him in Dawsonville. All of the Chase Elliott fans want to go there, but tell them that I sent ya,” Busch said.
John Hunter Nemechek won both stages and ended up finishing third for his third top-five of the 2021 season.
“Solid performance by our No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports team,” Nemechek said. “Overall, I feel good in our performance, just disappointed to come home third. Kyle (Busch, Team Owner) was really fast today. We had our ups and downs there toward the end, but kind of ran in the top three all day was a solid performance. Overall, won both stages and solid points day for us, continuing to move forward to Bristol Dirt next week.”
There were three cautions for 16 laps and eight lead changes among four different leaders.
Official Results following the FR8 Auctions 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway:
- Kyle Busch, led 102 laps
- Austin Hill
- John Hunter Nemechek, won both stages, led 21 laps
- Johnny Sauter
- Sheldon Creed
- Zane Smith
- Ross Chastain
- Matt Crafton
- Brett Moffitt
- Stewart Friesen
- Grant Enfinger
- Carson Hocevar
- Derek Kraus, 1 lap down
- Parker Kligerman, 1 lap down
- Ryan Truex, 1 lap down
- Ben Rhodes, 1 lap down
- Todd Gilliland, 1 lap down
- Tyler Ankrum, 1 lap down
- Tanner Gray, 1 lap down
- Spencer Davis, 1 lap down
- Hailie Deegan, 1 lap down
- Josh Berry, 1 lap down
- Austin Wayne Self, 2 laps down
- Chase Purdy, 2 laps down
- Jordan Anderson, 2 laps down
- Tate Fogleman, 2 laps down
- Cory Roper, 3 laps down
- Danny Bohn, 3 laps down
- Codie Rohrbaugh, 4 laps down
- Timothy Peters, 4 laps down
- Dawson Cram, 4 laps down
- Bret Holmes, 4 laps down
- Spencer Boyd, 5 laps down
- Ryan Ellis, 6 laps down
- Chandler Smith, 6 laps down
- Bill Lester, 7 laps down
- Akinori Ogata, 7 laps down
- Jennifer Jo Cobb, 13 laps down
- Raphael Lessard, OUT, Transmission
- Norm Benning, OUT, Too Slow
Up Next: The Camping World Truck Series will visit Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night, March 27, for the first-ever Bristol Dirt Race.
