Kyle Busch gets first win of season at Texas

Kyle Busch beat Kevin Harvick this time, winning the NASCAR Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway to give Joe Gibbs Racing its first victory of the season.

Busch stayed in front of Harvick the last 24 laps after the final restart. It was Busch’s third win at Texas and the 44th of his career. He led 116 of the 334 laps.

While Busch hadn’t won in the first six races, he had finished second three times — twice to Harvick — and is the series points leader.

Harvick, who won at Texas in November, led 87 of the first 129 laps and won the first stage. But he had issues on pit road, including a strange incident during a caution when a lugnut popped loose and into the jack. He dropped from first to ninth on that stop, then had to come back in a few laps later because of a loose wheel.

Harvick and reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr. had won the previous eight Cup races on 11⁄2-mile tracks. But Truex wasn’t around for the finish of this one. The first 85-lap stage ended under caution after a front right tire blew on his No. 78 Toyota, which shot up the track and slammed hard into the outer wall. Truex, second to Harvick at the time, finished last in the 37-car field.

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