Trackin' Trucks: Kyle Busch Wins at Atlanta

 

Credit: Debbie Ross for Skirts and Scuffs

It was a photo-finish victory for Kyle Busch at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon. The Spire Motorsports driver held off Craftsman Truck Series regular Stewart Friesen with a .017 second margin of victory.

Busch led 80 of the 135 laps during the Fr8 208. The victory is Busch’s 67th of his career in the series.

“Awesome run for this Spire Chevrolet and everybody at Gainbridge,” Busch said, referring to the sponsor of the No. 7 Chevrolet truck. 

“Just trying to make sure I stayed as far forward as I possibly could. Those guys would cycle to me and get to the next one in front, next one in front of me and I just made sure to keep battling back and got back to the front so I could control it the best I could. That inside [lane] was good; they were rolling forward so it made for a heck of a race.”

“I’m proud we had a heck of a race there to the finish and it wasn’t single-file. There was some mixing it up for these fans out here to see a cool show.”

Tyler Ankrum, Bayley Currey, and Chandler Smith rounded out the top-five finishers.

Kaden Honeycutt finished sixth, Ben Rhodes earned seventh, while Ty Majeski, Jake Garcia, and Grant Enfinger rounded out the top 10.

The event was red flagged on Lap 78 after the No. 71 Chevrolet of Rajah Caruth spun on the bottom of Turn 4 of the race track. The incident collected Andres Perez de Lara, William Sawalich, and Daniel Hemric, who all suffered some degree of damage. Perez and Sawalich finished in the 27th and 30th positions, respectively, while Hemric recovered to earn 16th place.

Last week’s winner Corey Heim finished 23rd. The No. 11 Toyota ran out of fuel at the end of Stage 2, resulting in the driver going four laps down. Heim earned one of the laps back before crossing the finish line at the 1.54-mile track.

Pole-winner Conner Mosack, who also led 30 laps on Saturday afternoon, made contact with rookie Frankie Muniz late in the race that resulted a 25th-place finish.

A Look Ahead

The Craftsman Truck Series has two weeks off before they return to action at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Caruth earned his first career series victory one year ago in Vegas. Will he repeat this year?

Find out on Friday, March 14th at 9 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.