By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service
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 series next race, the LiftKits4Less.com 200 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway is Friday night at 7:30 p.m. (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Interviews:
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series – Race winner, Kyle Busch (No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota)
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series – 2nd Place, Ross Chastain (No. 44 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet); 3rd Place, Austin Hill (No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises Toyota)
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series – Current points leader, John Hunter Nemechek (No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota)
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race – 21st Annual Wise Power 200
Kansas Speedway
Kansas City, Kansas
Saturday, May 1, 2021
1. (2) Kyle Busch(i), Toyota, 140.
2. (34) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 140.
3. (7) Austin Hill, Toyota, 140.
4. (17) Christian Eckes, Toyota, 140.
5. (1) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 140.
6. (6) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 140.
7. (9) Zane Smith, Chevrolet, 140.
8. (15) Raphael Lessard, Chevrolet, 140.
9. (4) Johnny Sauter, Toyota, 140.
10. (3) Ben Rhodes, Toyota, 140.
11. (5) Chandler Smith #, Toyota, 140.
12. (26) Bayley Currey(i), Chevrolet, 140.
13. (20) Hailie Deegan #, Ford, 140.
14. (10) Stewart Friesen, Toyota, 140.
15. (13) Tyler Ankrum, Chevrolet, 140.
16. (16) Austin Wayne Self, Chevrolet, 139.
17. (29) Grant Enfinger, Chevrolet, 139.
18. (18) Tanner Gray, Ford, 139.
19. (30) Chase Briscoe(i), Ford, 139.
20. (31) Ryan Truex, Chevrolet, 139.
21. (22) Timothy Peters, Chevrolet, 139.
22. (25) Timmy Hill(i), Chevrolet, 139.
23. (11) Carson Hocevar #, Chevrolet, 139.
24. (12) Matt Crafton, Toyota, 139.
25. (23) Chase Purdy #, Chevrolet, 138.
26. (21) Danny Bohn, Toyota, 138.
27. (32) Bret Holmes, Chevrolet, 138.
28. (14) Derek Kraus, Toyota, 138.
29. (19) Spencer Davis, Toyota, 137.
30. (36) Jordan Anderson(i), Chevrolet, 137.
31. (28) Dawson Cram, Chevrolet, 137.
32. (8) Sheldon Creed, Chevrolet, 136.
33. (24) Kris Wright #, Chevrolet, 135.
34. (40) CJ McLaughlin, Toyota, 133.
35. (27) Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 133.
36. (35) Tate Fogleman, Chevrolet, 130.
37. (39) Jennifer Jo Cobb, Chevrolet, Electrical, 106.
38. (38) Jesse Iwuji, Chevrolet, Too Slow, 73.
39. (37) Norm Benning, Chevrolet, Too Slow, 42.
40. (33) Ryan Reed, Chevrolet, Steering, 27.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 119.582 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 45 Mins, 22 Secs. Margin of Victory: .665 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 5 for 25 laps.
Lead Changes: 14 among 7 drivers.
Lap Leaders: J. Nemechek 1-11;S. Creed 12-25;K. Busch(i) 26-37;S. Creed 38-39;K. Busch(i) 40-63;J. Nemechek 64-68;K. Busch(i) 69-74;S. Creed 75-99;K. Busch(i) 100;B. Rhodes 101-102;C. Eckes 103-105;J. Sauter 106-118;K. Busch(i) 119-132;R. Chastain(i) 133-138;K. Busch(i) 139-140.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Kyle Busch(i) 6 times for 59 laps; Sheldon Creed 3 times for 41 laps; John Hunter Nemechek 2 times for 16 laps; Johnny Sauter 1 time for 13 laps; Ross Chastain(i) 1 time for 6 laps; Christian Eckes 1 time for 3 laps; Ben Rhodes 1 time for 2 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 51,4,2,99,88,16,52,38,19,44
Stage #2 Top Ten: 51,4,2,16,21,52,19,99,38,1
