3 keys to Kyle Busch's impressive victory at Texas Motor Speedway
Kyle Busch powered the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to a convincing victory in Saturday night's rain-delayed Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Busch scored a big win ahead of the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano in a Team Penske Ford, and two more Hendrick Chevys belonging to Jimmie Johnson and Chase Elliott.
In the process, Busch won his second consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race and scored his second consecutive weekend NASCAR sweep.
Here's how he did it.
DRIVE A TOYOTA -- Without question, the five Toyotas of Joe Gibbs Racing and Furniture Row Racing were the cars to beat all night long. In an impressive display of speed, the Toyotas led more than 300 laps.
From the drop of the green flag, the Toyotas dominated the proceedings, with the lead swapping back and forth, but almost always among Toyota drivers. Put simply, on this night, they had the field covered, as four of the five affiliated Toyotas led laps.
Busch made the race-winning pass on a restart with 33 laps to go and ran away from the field.
“Our Interstate Batteries Camry was really fast, especially in entry and center of the corner,” said Busch. “As the night progressed, I think the track actually came to us a little bit. Our car got a little bit better. Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and the guys made great pit stops all night long.”
STRATEGY --Martin Truex Jr. had phenomenal long-run speed in the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. But when the caution flew on Lap 290 for Greg Biffle's crash, Truex stayed out and most everyone behind him pitted for fresh rubber, which left him a sitting duck.
It was a damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don't situation, but it cost him the race.
Another caution, this one for a 13-car pileup on the backstretch set up the restart where Busch simply blew by Truex, who led 140 laps on the night, but was on old tires and helpless to fend off the competition.
“The restart was going to be key,” said Busch. “If I could just get out in front of him (Truex), I knew I could protect the rest of the race. They had a good restart, but we got a better one and I just had to get up on his door. He chose the inside and the inside has been winning the race all night long, but this time on the last restart it finally prevailed for us.”
PIT ROAD WOES -- One of the biggest key to the race was pit road, where a series of mistakes took some fast cars out of contention.
Jimmie Johnson had won the last three straight races at TMS, but on the competition caution in the first 30 laps of the race, he ran into the back of Kyle Busch on pit road, after Busch had to slam on the brakes to avoid Kevin Harvick, who was pulling out of his pit.
The contact damaged the nose of Johnson's car and minor damage on the right-rear quarter panel of Busch's car. Once that happened, Johnson's march to the front immediately halted, and he was stuck barely inside the top 10. He never was a factor in the outcome.
Harvick had a tire get away on pit road on Lap 215, which caused him to get a penalty. On the same stop, he was too fast on pit road and had to restart at the end of the field.
Carl Edwards led 122 of the first 222 laps, but on a pit stop, but his crew only got two lug nuts on his right-front tire, which forced him to make a green-flag stop. That ended his chances of victory.
And on a stop around Lap 280, Kenseth had a lug nut wedge itself between the wheel and the hub, forcing him to make a second stop.
In the end, Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing team didn't make any big mistakes, and that's a big reason they wound up in Victory Lane.
