Kyle Busch, behind the wheel of No. 18 Traxxas Toyota, put the controversy and trash talking with Kevin Harvick from last week’s Darlington race behind him to win the Lucas Oil 200 Truck Series race at the Monster Mile in Dover, Delaware.
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[/media-credit]Busch’s win also tied him with Mark Martin for the most wins in all three series, with both drivers now at 96 victories. He is also the first two-time winner in the Camping World Truck Series at Dover International Speedway.
This was Busch’s 27th victory in 90 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races. The win also was his third victory and fifth top-10 finish in 2011.
“It was a really good truck,” Busch said. “I can’t say enough about this Toyota.”
While Busch seemed to dominate most of the race, he affirmed that it was not as easy as it seemed.
“Overall the race went pretty well for us,” Busch said. “It wasn’t quite the walk in the park it seemed. This place is so difficult and so challenging and you feel like you’re always on edge.”
Busch said that he and his nemesis Harvick managed to race each other clean and without issues.
“I thought today’s race was good,” Busch said of his competition with Harvick. “We had some close moments and we raced each other hard but it was fine. All is good as far as I know.”
For his part, Kevin Harvick finished fifth after an eventful race. Harvick, piloting the No. 2 Bad Boy Buggies Chevrolet, had to rebound from a speeding penalty to work his way back through the field to score that top five finish.
Red Bull rookie Cole Whitt had almost as good a race as winner Kyle Busch, finishing in the runner up position. The driver of the No. 60 Red Bull/Fuel Doctor Chevrolet posted his first top-10 finish, his first top five and his career best finish.
“It’s crazy,” Whitt said. “I’m happy to be here in the first place. Trying to live the dream and chase it and drive door to door with half these guys, let alone Kyle Busch, is pretty cool.”
“We had a great truck all weekend and this thing’s been pretty spot on,” Whitt said. “We’ve just been turning things around from the way the season started.”
“Early in the race, we were good on long runs and our truck just couldn’t do it on short runs,” Whitt said, crediting that issue to his runner up status. “That’s what it just turned in to be. It was all short runs after that.”
Whitt also acknowledged that he went to school at the feet of Kyle Busch, especially on those late race restarts.
“Kyle is one of the best in the business on restarts,” Whitt said. “He definitely schooled me a few times and then I felt like I got a good one there at the end but it wasn’t good enough.”
“We’re all small team trying to make it big.”
Matt Crafton, driver of the No. 88 Menards/Certain Teed Chevrolet, came in third but that was good enough for him to claim the points lead in the Truck Series.
“At the beginning of the race, I couldn’t fire off and I was really, really loose,” Crafton said. “But at the end of the run, we’d be one of the best trucks on the race track.”
This was Crafton’s sixth top-10 finish in 11 races at the Monster Mile. He is now leading the points by five over teammate Johnny Sauter.
“It’s great to be the points leader,” Crafton continued. “We just need to keeping doing what we’re doing and running top five every week and having these top three finishes and throw a couple of wins off and see where we are at Homestead.”
Austin Dillon, behind the wheel of the No. 3 BassProShops/Remington/Tracker Boats Chevrolet, finished in the fourth spot. Harvick rounded out the top five.
Another notable in the race finishing order was rookie Joey Coulter, who qualified fifth and finished sixth in his No. 22 RCR/Rip-It Chevrolet. This was Coulter’s first trip to the Monster Mile and the driver and his family were thrilled with the result.
Brendan Gaughan, James Buescher, Ron Hornaday, Jr. and Justin Marks, the pole sitter rounded out the top ten.
