It’s not a Sprint Cup win, but after his well-documented problems at Kansas Speedway, Kyle Busch will gladly take a Camping World Truck Series victory there.
Busch took the lead with 21 laps to go and pulled away in the closing circuits to win a caution-marred SFP 250 for the Trucks tonight at Kansas.
Nine caution periods gave a disjointed feel to the evening, but Busch remained dominant and led 104 laps en route to his second Truck win of the season in as many starts.
After a wreck for Bryan Silas with 42 laps to go, Sprint Cup rookie Austin Dillon took the lead out of pit road under caution with a two-tire stop while Busch was second out after a four-tire stop.
But while Dillon held the point for some time after the restart, Busch slowly reeled him in and managed to make the race-winning pass on him in the tri-oval.
Dillon ultimately finished fourth behind winner Busch, runner-up Matt Crafton, and yet another Cup driver in Joey Logano, who had fallen back after making a green flag pit stop just three laps before the Silas incident took place. Tayler Malsam completed the Top 5.
Busch’s 37th Truck win marks the first time in 32 CWTS races that the pole sitter won the race. It also gave crew chief Eric Phillips his 29th career Truck win, making him the all-time wins leader among crew chiefs in the CWTS.
“Kansas! I’m a winner at Kansas,” Busch exclaimed with a touch of surprise in Victory Lane to Fox Sports. “I can’t say enough about everyone at [Kyle Busch Motorsports]. Everybody there, man, chassis shop, body guys, everybody there in the fab shop – they do such a great job for me whether it’s late models or whether its Trucks.
“They’re a lot of fun to work with and they’re a great group.”
Crafton’s runner-up enabled him to take the CWTS points lead by eight over Timothy Peters, who sustained damage in a Lap 1 incident that forced him to go to the garage for a time. He would come back to finish 14th, nine laps down.