Kyle Busch rolls to dominating Truck Series win at Charlotte
CONCORD, N.C. -- Kyle Busch won the NC Education Lottery 200 Camping World Truck Series race Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and it wasn't much of a contest.
Busch won for the second weekend in a row, having also won last week at Kansas Speedway when Ben Rhodes blew an engine while leading with eight laps to go. It also was his record seventh Truck Series win at the 1.5-mile track.
Busch won in the No. 51 Toyota Tundra he fields himself at Kyle Busch Motorsports.
"It means a lot. These guys (at KBM) pour their hearts and souls into these trucks," Busch said. "It's a testament to them that we were able to go back-to-back in getting to Victory Lane."
Busch won the first two stages, winning the second by making a dramatic pass of both Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter just three laps from its conclusion. That was about as close as anyone got to really challenging Busch all night.
On a restart with 38 to go, Rhodes challenged Busch briefly – but Busch surged ahead.
Another restart followed when Austin Wayne Self appeared to clip Regan Smith, sending Smith around in his No. 92 truck and ending his night after it met with the outside wall.
Again, Busch got the jump on the restart to keep the lead.
He built up a huge 2.5-second advantage over the rest of the field, but then a spin by Matt Mills in the No. 44 truck brought out the ninth caution of the night with six laps remaining.
By the time the field lined up for the restart, only four laps remained. Busch restarted on the outside of the front row, with pole-sitter Christopher Bell, who also drives for KBM and had battled back after going a lap down early because of a flat tire, in second on his inside.
Again, Busch got the jump and pulled away. This time, there were no more cautions and no more restarts.
Johnny Sauter led 22 laps, and was the only other driver besides Busch, who led a race-high 90, to lead more than seven. Sauter finished second in the race and also in the first two stages.
"On one of those restarts, I was grabbing gears as fast as I could and he still squirted away from me," Sauter said of Busch.
Bell, Ryan Truex and Timothy Peters rounded out the top five in the finishing order.
