HAMPTON, Ga.– Stop me if you’ve heard this before; Kyle Busch wins in XFINITY.
The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 119 of the 163 laps on his way to scoring his 76th career victory in the NASCAR XFINITY Series.
“Just to accomplish some of my goals that I have in racing (is special),” said Busch. “Being in Atlanta – I have never won here before (in the XFINITY Series), so I can’t say enough about JGR engines. I’m glad to get it out of the way and checked off the list.”
Kyle Larson closed into within half a second of Busch in the closing laps, but got caught off guard by a lapped car and had to settle for runner-up in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.
“We were a little bit better than I thought we were going to be. I thought we’d be a fourth-, fifth-, sixth-place car, and we were definitely second-best, I thought,” Larson said.
Erik Jones had a strong car today but had to serve a pass-through penalty after beating Busch to the line on the initial start. He would go on to finish third in his No. 20 JGR Toyota. Paul Menard finished fourth in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Ty Dillon rounded out the top-five in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet.
Brad Keselowski finished sixth in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.
“We just weren’t as strong as we wanted to be and needed to be,” Keselowski said. “We’ll work on it from there and try to find a little bit more speed.”
Daniel Suárez finished seventh in his No. 19 JGR Toyota. Justin Allgaier finished eighth in his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Elliott Sadler finished ninth in his No. 1 JRM Chevrolet. Jeb Burton rounded out the top-10 in his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford.
“I was having fun today,” Burton said. “We did a good job. I felt like we lost some spots on that last restart. The longer we went, the tighter we got. It seemed like later in the day we just kept getting tighter and tighter. I’m really proud of the guys. They worked really hard this week, considering 14 days ago this team didn’t exist. I’m really proud of that and I feel like we’ll get better each week.”
The race lasted one hour, 49 minutes and 53 seconds at an average speed of 137.065 mph. There were five lead changes among four different drivers. There were five cautions for 21 laps.
Complete Finishing Order – NXS Heads Up Georgia 250 – Atlanta Motor Speedway
1. (1) Kyle Busch(i), Toyota, 163.
2. (4) Kyle Larson(i), Chevrolet, 163.
3. (2) Erik Jones #, Toyota, 163.
4. (11) Paul Menard(i), Chevrolet, 163.
5. (6) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 163.
6. (7) Brad Keselowski(i), Ford, 163.
7. (3) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 163.
8. (12) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 163.
9. (16) Elliott Sadler, Chevrolet, 163.
10. (15) Jeb Burton, Ford, 163.
11. (19) Brandon Jones #, Chevrolet, 163.
12. (10) Kevin Harvick(i), Chevrolet, 162.
13. (9) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 162.
14. (5) Brennan Poole #, Chevrolet, 162.
15. (17) Ryan Reed, Ford, 162.
16. (8) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 162.
17. (14) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 162.
18. (18) Darrell Wallace Jr, Ford, 162.
19. (22) JJ Yeley, Toyota, 162.
20. (13) Blake Koch, Chevrolet, 161.
21. (20) Dakoda Armstrong, Toyota, 160.
22. (21) Ryan Preece #, Chevrolet, 159.
23. (23) Corey Lajoie, Toyota, 159.
24. (26) Garrett Smithley #, Chevrolet, 159.
25. (32) Mario Gosselin, Chevrolet, 158.
26. (29) BJ McLeod #, Ford, 157.
27. (34) Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, 156.
28. (24) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 152.
29. (40) Chris Cockrum, Chevrolet, 152.
30. (36) Mike Harmon, Dodge, 151.
31. (37) Cody Ware #, Chevrolet, 151.
32. (33) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, Suspension, 127.
33. (27) Ray Black Jr #, Chevrolet, 113.
34. (38) Josh Reaume, Dodge, Suspension, 87.
35. (25) Harrison Rhodes, Chevrolet, Rear Gear, 68.
36. (30) Carl Long, Toyota, Handling, 29.
37. (39) Morgan Shepherd, Chevrolet, Overheating, 25.
38. (35) Todd Peck, Ford, Engine, 15.
39. (28) David Starr, Toyota, Engine, 7.
40. (31) Jeff Green, Toyota, Electrical, 1.
