Busch comes from back of pack to win race
RICHMOND, Va. – Kyle Busch passed Brad Keselowski with 38 laps to go and held off hard-charging Kevin Harvick to win the NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Richmond Raceway on Saturday night.
Busch won for the 50th time in his career, the sixth time on the 0.75-mile oval and for the first time here in the fall. And he did it from the back after making a prerace adjustment to his car.
“To start dead last, come up through the field and win this thing? That’s right. ‘Rowdy Nation.’ All for you, baby,” Busch said after climbing from his car. “I finally won a fall race here at Richmond.”
Harvick closed a gap of more than 1.5 seconds over the final few laps but was not able to deprive Busch of tying him with a season-best seven wins this season.
Martin Truex Jr., who swept the first two stages before a penalty forced him to play catch up, rallied for third, followed by Chase Elliott and Aric Almirola.
“The problem is when you get back there, to pass those guys, you’ve got to really use up your tires,” Truex said. “We did really good for only having one caution thrown in there. It went well. We needed more cautions so we could pit for tires. What a hotrod we had tonight. … They rebounded well from the pit road mishap.”
It was the first time all season that the three drivers who have dominated all season claimed the top three spots in a race.
Busch and rival Keselowski, seeking his fourth consecutive victory in the series, battled for the lead for much of the last 100-plus laps. Keselowski grabbed to top spot on Lap 343, but Busch took it back 20 laps later before Keselowski faded, eventually finishing ninth, and Harvick picked up the chase.
“I thought he used a little more when he was racing with Keselowski there, and he drove off a little bit and I started driving him back down at the end,” Harvick said.
Busch and Keselowski have already clinched spots in the next round of the playoff, and Truex joined them by winning the first two stages.
Newman hired: Ryan Newman will move to Roush Fenway Racing next season to drive its No. 6 Fords, the team announced before the race. He has driven the No. 31 for Richard Childress Racing since 2014.
Trevor Bayne drove the No. 6 from 2015-’17, and split time this season with Matt Kenseth, the 2003 Cup series champion from Cambridge, Wisconsin. Kenseth stepped away from fulltime racing after last season, but came back to help the struggling team.
Kenseth, 46, told NBC Sports before the race he did not want to compete full-time next season becuse he enjoyed his time away from the track with his family.
He’s not necessarily done with NASCAR at the end of this year, Kenseth told NBC, but he didn’t plan to race for any team other than Roush Fenway, the team with which he launched his career.