DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Kyle Busch timed his run for the lead perfectly, coming off Turn 4 at Daytona International Speedway to squeeze by and pass Timothy Peters in the final seconds of Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series season-opening NextEra Energy Resources 250.
In his first career win in a Truck at Daytona, Busch beat Peters to the checkered flag by .016 of a second in the closest finish in a Trucks race at DIS and the eighth-closest finish in overall Trucks Series history.
“It sounds awesome but I’d love to be a Daytona 500 winner,” Busch said when asked how he felt to finally break through with a Trucks win at DIS.
The younger Busch brother will get that opportunity in the Great American Race on Sunday, going for his first win in the Sprint Cup season opener, although he’ll be starting from 37th position in the 43-car field.
“This now makes it where I’ve won four (races) here, one in ARCA, Nationwide, Cup and now Trucks,” Busch said of being the first driver in NASCAR history to earn wins in all four series at Daytona. “I’ve been trying to get that fourth one and finally got it.”
Peters tried to block, forcing Busch up the track to almost the outside retaining wall, but Busch never lifted and at the last second somehow found just enough extra horsepower to get past Peters. Busch called it was probably the biggest history in Kyle Busch Motorsports history.
“We’ve started the trifecta,” said Busch, who goes for a win in Saturday’s Nationwide Series opener as well as Sunday’s Daytona 500.
It was Busch’s 36th win in the Trucks series, and crew chief Eric Phillips’ 28th in the NCWTS, tying him with Rick Wren for most wins by a crew chief in trucks annals.
Johnny Sauter finished third, followed by Ryan Truex and Ron Hornaday Jr.
Sixth through 10th were Ryan Blaney, Jeb Burton, Joe Nemechek, Jimmy Weller III and German Quiroga.
As close and exciting as the finish was, it also was a race marked by a spectacular 15-truck crash in Turn 2 with 25 laps remaining in the 100-lap event (see video above).
It appeared from TV replays that Sean Corr got into the rear of Parker Kligerman, who was pushed into Mason Mingus, triggering the huge wreck.
The push from Kligerman turned Mingus hard to the right and plowed head-on into the outside SAFER barrier, spun and then hit the wall again with the back of his truck.
None of the drivers involved were injured, but nearly half the field was sidelined due to damage as a result.
The 15 drivers involved included Mingus, Kligerman, Corr, Ryan Sieg, Darrell Wallace Jr., John King, Brian Ickler, John Wes Townley, Brennan Newberry, Tyler Young, Chris Fontaine, Tyler Reddick, Ben Kennedy, Joey Coulter and Chris Cockrum.
For as much wreckage as there was scattered across the race track, the race was never red-flagged, with the overall yellow caution period lasting just six laps until all wrecked trucks and debris were removed by safety crews.
For the fifth time in 10 rounds of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross season, the three riders at the top of the championship standings shared a podium and while those points tell one story, the NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Detroit tell a slightly different tale.Cooper Webb is peaking at the right time. – Feld Motor Sports
Chase Sexton has been all but perfect during the past 45 days with podium finishes in each of his heats and Triple Crown features. His only stumble during this period was a 10th-place finish in the Indianapolis Main. Last week, Sexton was perfect with wins in both his heat and the feature, although he needed a little help from an Aaron Plessinger mistake to take the top spot on the podium at the end of the night.
Cooper Webb finished fifth at Houston and was beginning to worry ever so slightly about his position in the points. Prior to the race in Tampa, he told NBC Sports that it was time to win and like Babe Ruth pointing to the outfield fence, Webb went out and captured it. Following that race, Webb has swept the podium and earned the red plate two weeks ago in Indianapolis. At Detroit, he added two more points on Eli Tomac as the season begins to wind down.
Tomac struggled with a stiff neck at Indianapolis and after a modest third-place showing in Detroit, he revealed he was still suffering a little. Webb and Sexton have been able to close the gap on Tomac in the past 45 days, but one of the main reasons he is so close in the points was a pair of wins that started the year. Seattle is going to be important for the defending champion because Tomac cannot afford to lose any more momentum with seven rounds remaining.
It appeared Jason Anderson was turning things around. He earned his fifth heat win at Detroit, which was also his sixth consecutive race (including features) in which he scored a top-five. A fall in the Detroit Main dropped him a lap off the pace and sent him home with a season-worst finish of ninth, causing a ripple effect in the SuperMotocross Power Rankings.
Justin Barcia was a huge part of the show last week in Detroit. He swapped positions with both Webb and Tomac in the middle stage of the race, which allowed Sexton to close the gap. Barcia finished fourth in that race to earn his third consecutive top-five. He’s been outside the top 10 only once in the first 10 rounds.
Adam Cianciarulo had a great start to the Main. He led a couple of laps before losing a lap and slipping back to eighth in the final rundown. That run was strong enough to elevate him three positions in the SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Detroit.
The NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings look at the past 90 days in the 250 class in order to have a balanced comparison between the East and West divisions and Hunter Lawrence has been all but perfect this year. At Detroit, he earned his fifth win of the season and kept alive a streak of podium finishes in six rounds. He tied his brother Jett Lawrence with 10 250 wins one week before the West riders take to the track for back-to-back races at Seattle, Washington and Glendale, Arizona.
Nate Thrasher is settling into a comfortable role as ‘best in class’. – Feld Motor Sports
The Lawrence brothers are dominating the points in each of their respective divisions, which means the remainder of the field is battling to be best in class.
In the East, that rider is Nate Thrasher, who beat Hunter in a head-to-head matchup in their heat only to finish second in the main when the majority of points were awarded. Thrasher seems to have accepted his position in the championship standings, but that doesn’t mean he won’t keep trying for wins.
Haiden Deegan showed a lot of aggression in his heat last week. He threw a couple of block passes at his teammate Jordon Smith and set up a series of events that kept Smith from making the big show while Deegan settled into second in the preliminary. Deegan was unconcerned about how he raced his teammate and would not let a little controversy keep him from celebrating his second career podium in Detroit.
Jeremy Martin just keeps clicking off solid results. He won his heat last week by making a pass on Deegan and Smith while they were in the heat of their battle. Martin finished fourth in the Main, which means he continues to have only one finish worse than sixth in any of the features or mains.
Smith fell one position in the points standings, but the damage was even worse in SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Detroit. Crash damage in his heat contributed to a last-place finish in that race, for which he earned minimal points. He was not able to advance from the Last Chance Qualifier after stalling his bike in heavy traffic.
250 Rankings
This
Week
Rider
Power
Avg.
Last
Week
Diff.
1.
Hunter Lawrence – E
[5 Main, 5 Heat wins]
90.43
1
0
2.
Jett Lawrence – W
[3 Main, 3 Heat wins]
90.30
2
0
3.
Nate Thrasher – E
[1 Main, 3 Heat wins]
84.00
5
2
4.
Cameron McAdoo – W
[1 Heat win]
79.80
9
5
5.
Haiden Deegan – E
[1 Heat win]
78.21
7
2
6.
Jeremy Martin – E
[2 Heat wins]
78.00
8
2
7.
Jordon Smith – E
[3 Heat Wins]
76.77
4
-3
8.
Levi Kitchen – W
[1 Main]
75.30
3
-5
9.
Mitchell Oldenburg – W
75.20
11
2
10.
RJ Hampshire – W
[4 Heat wins]
74.50
17
7
11.
Max Anstie – E
74.43
6
-5
12.
Tom Vialle – E
72.07
12
0
13.
Max Vohland – W
71.56
10
-3
14.
Stilez Robertson – W
[1 Heat win]
69.22
14
0
15.
Chris Blose – E
67.43
18
3
16.
Chance Hymas – E
67.10
15
-1
17.
Enzo Lopes – W
66.00
20
3
18.
Michael Mosiman – E
65.80
16
-2
19.
Pierce Brown – W
65.78
13
-6
20.
Phil Nicoletti – W
59.25
21
1
* The NBC Power Rankings assign 100 points to a Main event winner and 90 points for each Heat and Triple Crown win, (Triple Crown wins are included with heat wins below the rider’s name). The points decrement by a percentage equal to the number of riders in the field until the last place rider in each event receives five points. The Power Ranking is the average of these percentage points over the past 45 days for the 450 class and last 90 days for 250s (because of the split nature of their season).
