USA TODAY International Edition
Kyle Busch tops Harvick for NASCAR win
FORT WORTH – The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points leader and the most dominant driver on the series in 2018 got to go head-to-head in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.
And for the first time in 2018, Kyle Busch has a trophy to go along with his series lead.
Busch drove the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the first victory for JGR this year by holding off Kevin Harvick by 0.3 seconds on a day when Harvick said he was done in by pit guns provided by NASCAR.
“It means a lot,” Busch said. “It just kind of solidifies your playoffs and solidifies us being the point leader and the way we’ve been running this year. My guys were just so good. I can’t say enough about everybody on my team. We’ve just got everything clicking right now.”
Jamie McMurray finished third for his best finish of the year, and Erik Jones finished fourth to give JGR two of the top-four spots.
Busch said he thought Harvick’s car was a little faster than his, but he hit all of his marks in the final laps. Both cars pitted with 42 laps remaining. A crash by Ryan Newman brought out the eighth and final caution. Busch restarted on the inside of Harvick when the race restarted on lap 312 and held him off.
The pit struggles for Harvick, who won the first stage, dropped him to as low as 22nd in the race thanks to pit gun issues that have plagued Harvick all season.
The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford thinks a green-flag stop that was brought on by a loose wheel was too much to overcome.
“It’s been a frustrating two days,” said Harvick, who also ran in the Xfinity Series race Saturday and finished 19th. “We’ve had a pathetic two days on pit road because we can’t get pit guns that work in our pit stalls. Today we had to pit under green, got ourselves a lap down, because they work half the time and they don’t work half the time.
“Yesterday we had four loose wheels because the pit guns can’t get the tires tight. Our guys did a great job with a really fast race car. I feel bad for the guys on pit road because they get handed just inconsistent pieces of equipment and today it ended up costing us a race.”
Whether or not Harvick could have beaten Busch if he hadn’t had problems is up for debate. Busch has been a contender all year, posting four-top five finishes in the first six races of the season.
Busch, who has now won three times in the Cup series at Texas Motor Speedway, started eighth and was able to avoid the carnage throughout the race. Jimmie Johnson, who has won seven times at the track, was caught up in a seven-car accident at also eliminated contenders Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski.
Martin Truex Jr. was running second when he blew a right front tire and hit the wall. Another blown right front tire ended the day for Kyle Larson, who had a top-five run going at the time.
Only 10 cars finished on the lead lap and 11 cars were out of the race when Busch took the checkered flag.
While Harvick was having his issues, Busch was smooth throughout the race. He was second to Harvick in the first stage before leading 34 laps in the second stage to set the tone for the final 164 laps.
Busch led four times for a race-high 116 laps.
Sunday again showed how far Busch has come since a season-opening 25thplace showing at Daytona. His win extended his string of top-three finishes to five races.
“This has been a trying couple of months,” Busch said. “After Daytona we’ve just been on a roll of finishing really well and getting really pumped and excited about that and the momentum we were able to carry but frustrated at the same time trying to get to victory lane.
“It feels awesome. Any time you can win at a track that kind of isn’t maybe one of your favorites or isn’t one of your best, then it definitely means even more.”