Trackin’ Trucks: Kyle Busch Wins at Sonoma

 

Credit: Debbie Ross for Skirts and Scuffs 

Kyle Busch earned his first Camping World Truck Series victory of the season on Saturday afternoon, holding off series regular Zane Smith by 1.176 seconds.

Busch led 45 of the 75 laps during the Door Dash 250. It is his 62nd victory in the series, which also extends a 10 year streak of at least one victory.

“Just continuing to work on the truck and make it better,” Busch said of his team‘s race-long work on the No. 51 Toyota. The No. 51 team now has three victories this season, twice with driver Corey Heim (Atlanta, Gateway).

“This Tundra TRD Pro was awesome today and [I'm] really proud to drive it. We had a struggle at Charlotte a couple weeks ago but today was really good.”

Ty Majeski earned his fifth top five of the 2022 season with his third place finish, while Ross Chastain and Chandler Smith rounded out the top five.

Carson Hocevar, who injured his ankle last weekend during a last-lap crash at Gateway, was credited with a sixth-place finish. Hocevar logged 10 laps before handing over his driving duties to Daniel Suarez. Suarez and the Niece Motorsports team overcame going two laps down during the driver change, making it all the way up to sixth place.

“It was busy man, very busy,” Suárez said, “I was hoping for long runs so I could make up some ground, but I think we did a very good job and very thankful we were able to get some stage points and finish in the top six. That was a pretty decent day. I wish we could have won, the truck was capable of winning the race.”

Parker Kligerman finished seventh, while John Hunter Nemechek, Tyler Ankrum, and Matt DiBenedetto earned eighth through 10th place finishes, respectively.

A hard crash resulted in an almost 13 minute red flag after Josh Bilicki, Stewart Friesen and Alex Bowman tangled going into Turn 1 on Lap 71. Bilicki and Friesen suffered the most damage. They made contact with the concrete barriers, which shifted the walls and required repair.

A Look Ahead

The Camping World Truck Series heads to Knoxville Raceway’s half-mile dirt oval next Saturday, June 18th. 

The CWTS has four races remaining before the Playoffs begin. 

Rhodes leads Chandler Smith by only a five-point margin and 12 points over three-time winner this season, Zane Smith. 

Matt Crafton sits on the bubble in 10th, while Tanner Gray and Matt DiBenedetto are on the outside by 33 and 36 points, respectively. 

Don’t miss the CWTS next Saturday at 9 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.