Busch wins 3rd straight Xfinity race

end, but we just persevered,” said Busch, who at one point was a lap down. “We had great speed. I think we showed it all weekend. It was just a matter of putting it all together and ending up in victory lane, where we deserved to be.”

Sadler finished second and Suarez finished third to give the Chase contenders a nice start to the three-race round of eight, which now takes a twoweek break before continuing at Texas.

“Everyone is starting off square,” Sadler said, “so you’re trying to get a point here and get a point there. Now everybody will have different strategies as we go to Texas and Phoenix.”

Two more Sprint Cup regulars, Joey Logano and Kyle Larson, waged an entertaining duel to round out the top five. But it was some drama around them in the closing laps that shook up the title chase.

Justin Allgaier and Darrell Wallace Jr. were involved in a late wreck, though Allgaier’s partially destroyed car was able to finish a lap down in 14th. Wallace wound up 33rd and now has a massive deficit to make up the next two races if he wants to avoid elimination.

“Pretty hard hit. Just unfortunate,” said Wallace, who was blinking away some pain when he took off his helmet. “We were making some good calls and running our own race and that’s part of it.

“I think we could have gotten a top-10 if we hit our restarts right, but just not our day.”

Nor was it Brendan Gaughan’s day. He went slip-sliding through the grass on the front stretch late in the race and wound up 31st — though he did provide some comic relief when he sprinted from the infield care center back to his car in an attempt to squeeze a few more laps in before the finish.

It wound up having no bearing on his result.