KANSAS CITY, Kan. (May 1, 2021) — Statistically speaking, Kyle Busch had a perfect night at Kansas Speedway on Friday, sweeping both stage victories in the WISE Power 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, leading the most laps and earning his series record 61st trophy.
But the veteran had to earn that joyous finish — rallying from a fourth-place starting position on the final overtime restart to take the lead in a three-wide battle. He ultimately led the final two laps to take the checkered by .665-seconds over Ross Chastain. It marked the second win of the season for Busch. He‘s either won or finished runner-up in his four Truck Series races this season.
Despite the dominance of Busch‘s No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota, he was on the radio with his team during the race‘s final caution, worried there may have been some sort technical problem with his truck. But at the drop of the green, he maneuvered around the front-running trucks of Chastain and Austin Hill, pulling away on the final lap.
Busch‘s win marks the fifth straight this season for his Kyle Busch Motorsports. His 59 laps out front was most on the night. It‘s Busch‘s third victory in his last four Kansas starts.
“No restarts actually went our way tonight, I was shocked, we definitely missed something just being able to come up through the gears and get going,” said the Las Vegas native who turns 37 Sunday.
“It just would not go. Those guys would just swarm us. I think we saw it one of the restarts with the 4-truck (Nemechek) too, he got run over. So all and all, great job by KBM and Toyota, TRD, this Cessna Beechcraft Tundra was awesome.”
Hill finished third, behind Busch and Chastain. Christian Eckes and Busch‘s teammate John Hunter Nemechek rounded out the top five. Todd Gilliland, Zane Smith, Raphael Lessard, Johnny Sauter and Ben Rhodes completed the top 10.
Series rookie Hailie Deegan finished a career best 13th and was running as high as eighth place, before pitting just before the final restart.
As with Busch, at one point Hill was worried about his truck‘s performance — pitting twice during the first stage break but steadily making his way back up through the field. Last year‘s regular season champion, Hill hasn‘t won since September, 2020 and the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway is statistically, his best track.
“I thought I did everything right on that restart, threw it on the apron and saw Chastain go up to block whoever was coming on his outside and got beside him and from there on out it was a drag race, I was wide open the whole green-white-checkered,” Hill said, adding, “Good finish, finishing third with everything we had going on. I want to win so bad, so just really frustrating right now.”
With his fifth-place finish Nemechek — a two-race winner in 2021 — maintains a 33-point lead over fellow two-race winner Ben Rhodes in the championship standings. And that was good enough to earn Nemechek‘s No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports team a $50,000 mid-season “road crew” bonus from series sponsor Camping World.
The weekend‘s exciting action continues tomorrow at Kansas Speedway with the Buschy McBusch Race 400 NASCAR Cup Series race. Brad Keselowski, last weekend‘s winner at Talladega Superspeedway, will lead the field to the green flag at 2:00 p.m. CT on FS1, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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About Kansas Speedway
Kansas Speedway is a premier motorsports facility in the Midwest. The track, which opened in 2001, hosts two NASCAR Cup Series weekends each year, along with approximately 200 other event days each year. This includes the annual American Royal World Series of Barbecue, the largest barbecue competition in the world which attracts teams both nationally and internationally. The Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway, which opened in 2012, overlooks Turn 2 of the track. Kansas Speedway‘s two NASCAR weekends in 2021 will take place May 1-2 and Oct. 23-24. Both will consist of a NASCAR Cup Series race, including the Hollywood Casino 400 on Sunday, Oct. 24, the second race in the Round of 8 of the Playoffs. Kansas Speedway is owned by NASCAR.
About NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is the sanctioning body for the No. 1 form of motorsports in the United States and owner of 16 of the nation‘s major motorsports entertainment facilities. NASCAR consists of three national series (NASCAR Cup Seriesu2122, NASCAR Xfinity Seriesu2122, and NASCAR Camping World Truck Seriesu2122), four regional series (ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series East & West and the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour), one local grassroots series (NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series) and three international series (NASCAR Pinty‘s Series, NASCAR Peak Mexico Series, NASCAR Whelen Euro Series). The International Motor Sports Associationu2122 (IMSAu00ae) governs the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championshipu2122, the premier U.S. sports car series. NASCAR also owns Motor Racing Network, Racing Electronics, and ONE DAYTONA. Based in Daytona Beach, Florida, with offices in eight cities across North America, NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races in more than 30 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico and Europe. For more information visit www.NASCAR.com and www.IMSA.com, and follow NASCAR on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat (‘NASCAR‘).
Kansas Speedway Media Contact:
Rodney Scearce
NASCAR Communications
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