Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Kyle Busch wins Truck race at Charlotte Motor Speedway

CONCORD, N.C. — Kyle Busch raced to his second straight NASCAR Truck Series victory Friday night, leading 90 of 134 laps in a dominating run at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Busch has 48 career Truck victories — three short of Ron Hornaday Jr.'s series record — and 173 wins overall in NASCAR's top three series, also winning 38 Cup races and 87 Xfinity events.

"Hopefully I can pass Ron on the Trucks side and when I am all said and done I will run my retirement series on the Truck Series and get the trifecta," said Busch, who has already won Cup and Xfinity championships.

That's probably still a long way down the road for the 32-year-old Busch, the winner last week at Kansas.

But at this rate, it won't take long for him to fly past Hornaday, just as he did the rest of the field Friday night.

Busch led all three stages en route to his seventh Truck Series win at Charlotte.

Points leader Johnny Sauter was second. Christopher Bell, Busch's teammate who started on the pole, battled back from a lap down to finish third. Ryan Truex was fourth, followed by Timothy Peters and Matt Crafton.

Busch provided the highlight of the night when he went from fifth to first on one lap, taking the lead when he pulled off a nifty move by squeezing in between Crafton and Sauter to take control of the race.

"I thought the middle was going to close up, but Crafton left me a lane in the middle and I was able to blow by both of them," Busch said.

Busch began to pull away with 25 laps remaining building nearly a 3 second lead before a caution came out with seven laps remaining.

But Busch ended any potential drama by steadily driving away on the restart. Sauter said he did everything he could to catch Busch on the final restart but it was useless.

"He just kept pulling away," Sauter said. "That No. 51 is fast."

It was Sauter's third second place finish of the season.

"We're knocking on that door," Sauter said. "We're getting close."

Bell said he was "bummed" that he finished third in what he called a "second-place car."

But Bell had to overcome a spinout on the second lap of the race when a tire went down.

He spent most of the race trying to get back on the lead lap. Once he did, he flew through the field to challenge the lead pack of drivers.

"I'm just glad my boss won," Bell said.

Austin Cindric, an 18-year-old who graduated from a Charlotte-area high school earlier in the day, spun out on lap 32, but rallied to finish 13th.

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