In only his second NASCAR Cup Series race for Richard Childress Racing, Kyle Busch earned his 61st career win in the No. 8 RCR Chevrolet. It was his fifth triumph at Auto Club Speedway and the 19th consecutive season that Bush has been to victory lane in the series.
The win advanced Busch to first all-time over Richard Petty, who had wins in 18 consecutive seasons. Kyle and Kurt Busch also broke a record for the most victories brothers with a combined Cup Series win total of 95 races, overtaking Bobby and Donnie Allison with the most wins among brothers.
Busch was ecstatic after the race.
“I think it’s just phenomenal,” he said post-race. “I can’t thank Richard and Judy (Childress) enough. I can’t thank Austin (Dillon) for calling me and getting me talking and getting me this opportunity to be able to come over here to RCR and be a part of Chevrolet and be able to race this Lucas Oil Camaro today. To be able to put it up front like that, man.
“The guys did a great job, Randall (Burnett, crew chief), everybody that has worked so hard during the off-season. We’ve done a lot of sim stuff; we’ve done a lot of testing in general just with trying to get up to speed, systems and all that sort of stuff. But man, there’s nothing more rewarding than being able to go to Victory Lane.”
Chase Elliott finished second in his No. 8 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy, rebounding from a disappointing 38th-place finish in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway.
“Just really proud of our team,” he said after the race. “We obviously didn’t run very good there toward the end of the year last year, and everybody really went to work hard over the winter to try and get better.
“Appreciate everybody on our NAPA team for just sticking with it and sticking with each other. Obviously, I think we still have some work to do, but it was really nice to just see a lot of that hard work pay off and have the car driving like we were wanting it to do. So that’s always a good thing. Appreciate everybody’s effort; everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet.”
Elliott also acknowledged Busch’s win while looking ahead to the next race.
“Congratulations to Kyle (Busch). For him to leave and then to go get the job done like that is pretty cool. He’s always been really good to me, so happy for them.
“Looking forward to getting to Vegas and hopefully competing for some more wins.”
Chevrolet was dominant with Ross Chastain finishing in third after leading a race-high 91 laps and winning the first two stages followed by Daniel Suárez in fourth, giving Chevrolet four of the top five spots. Kevin Harvick completed the top five in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.
Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon and Joey Logano completed the top 10.
Several cars were taken out of contention after a multi-car accident during a restart on Lap 86, including pole-sitter Christopher Bell, Aric Almirola, Ryan Blaney, Ryan Preece and Tyler Reddick.
There were 8 cautions for 38 laps during the race and 28 lead changes among 13 drivers.
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