Kyle Busch eyes fourth straight win
After overtime triumph at Richmond, driver aims to continue dominant streak
RICHMOND, VA. — On the eve of the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway, Kyle Busch reckoned that Kevin Harvick was ahead of him as the best this season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series by a notch.
Busch appears to have made up that distance with some room to spare.
Matching Harvick’s win streak of earlier in the season, Busch wonintwolaps of overtime Saturday night for his third consecutive Cup victory. Busch got out of the pits first after two cautions in the final 10 laps and lived up to his reputation for restart excellence by pulling away from the field on both. “I can’t say enough about [crew chief ] Adam Stevens and my guys and the pit crew tonight,” Busch said. “They won this race for us.
“They got us off pit road those last two times that we came down for tires and got us where we needed to be.” Following him in the top five were runner-up Chase Elliott, Busch’s teammate Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Harvick. Their finishes underscored further how impressive Busch’s victory was because they all started the race in the top 10.
Busch started in the 32nd spot, the lowest for a Cup race winner at Richmond since 2008, when Clint Bowyer came from 31st to victory thanks largely to Busch. That ’08 race is one of the most famous in the history of the three-quarter-mile track, as Busch drew the ire of many of the 112,000 on hand by wrecking with fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. as they battled for the lead with a little more than two laps remaining.
Busch’s memory of that prompted him to go into the stands Saturday and celebrate with some of his supporters.
“It was the 10-year anniversary,” Busch said, when asked about going into the stands for the first time after one of his 46career Cup wins. “I wondered if I’d come out alive.
“I think it was certainly different tonight. I saw a lot of yellow [the color of his M&M’s Camry] at the front fence line and I sawalittle bit of black, which was the [Cup] championship jacket back in [2015].
“Don’t worry, I was definitely eyeing it out, like who’s there and who’s there and who’s there. I saw a lot of 18 [his car number] stuff, Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway Sunday, 2 p.m. TV: Chs. 45, 5 Kyle Busch poses with the trophy in Victory Lane after winning the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway on Saturday night. so I just decided to go up there and give some guys and some kids some high-fives and ‘what’s up’s, but fortunately I got out of there.”
Indeed, for the first 354 laps the track was as civilized as it’s been for years during a Richmond race. At a venue where the number of wrecks for caution and debris can often be10 or more, there was not a single one for either in that period.
That was true even though three cars were often in close proximity of each other in the hunt for the lead. Most of the first 275 laps, those cars were the Fords of Kurt Busch (98 laps led), Logano (92) and Bowyer (45).
“You know, wehad a really great [car] early in the race and got a couple of stage wins early, which was great,” Logano said. “We just lost the handle on the car and fell back.”
Truex had the top car during a 95-lap period in the second half of the race, leading in stretches of 46 and 32 laps. But trouble with a jack on a pit stop with 30 laps left dropped him back and ultimately to a 14th-place finish.
“Pretty disappointed that we didn’t at least get a chance,” Truex said. “Tonight we beat ourselves, so that’s unfortunate.”
That opened the door for Hamlin, who was second on the penultimate restart, and Elliott, second on the final one, to challenge Kyle Busch. But for now, Busch has moved ahead of everyone, Harvick included, and his recent numbers draw comparisons to some of Jimmie Johnson’s.
His seven consecutive top-three finishes — three of them seconds and the past three firsts — surpasses the six most recently done by Johnson 15 years ago. Busch will go to Talladega next week seeking to equal the four consecutive victories last done by Johnson 11 years ago.
“Obviously wehaven’t wonfive [Cuptitles] in a row. But finishing in the top three seven weeks in a row is impressive for me,” Busch said. “Race wins is where it’s at. But more importantly, championships is where it’s at. Would love to deliver more for Joe Gibbs Racing.”