Xfinity Kansas Lottery 300: Kyle Busch wins at Kansas Speedway
A Sprint Cup regular wins a second straight Xfinity Series Chase race, this time it was Kyle Busch denying Elliott Sadler an automatic bid into championship race.
There is little argument that Kyle Busch is the most dominant Xfinity Series driver, this or any other year, after he notched his ninth win of the season taking the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway Saturday afternoon. The only problem is that he races full time in Sprint Cup and his trip to victory lane does nothing but add to his racing résumé.
For runner-up, Elliott Sadler and third place finisher Daniel Suarez their effort was nothing more than an exercise in points racing instead of battling for an automatic bid into the Round of 4 in the final race on Nov, 19.
Busch got caught during green flag pit stops when a caution came out leaving him a lap down, however, he was the first car one down and immediately got it back. He flew through the field ultimately taking charge and cruised to the win by a whopping 4.025 seconds.
“It was a hard-fought battle,” Busch said. “Seemed like it was going to easy for us, we had a superfast car and when we were out front, I could take it easy on those long runs and we could drive away. The car would turn so well. A lot of things were trying to work against us at the end of the race. We were able to persevere and do the right things and have lucky restarts and be in the right grooves and not get caught up in the mealy that was happening. A lot of cautions today.
“Overall this NOS Energy Drink Camry was awesome. I can’t say enough about my guys on this team – they do a great job each and every week. I use the XFINITY One app all the time, that fans should too. We appreciate the fans as well and being able to put this Toyota Camry in victory lane today.”
In the early going, Busch was putting the majority of the field in his rear view mirror and just 55 laps in, only five cars were on the lead lap. Up to that point the race was caution free allowing him to lap almost everyone. However, a caution would come out at 58 allowing Brennan Poole to get the free pass and on the restart, 13 drivers had advanced their positions.
The ‘big one’ in Kansas Speedway terms, happened at lap 164 when Brandon Jones bumped into Chase driver Justin Allgaier causing a multi-car wreck that knocked him out of the race as well as Darrell Wallace Jr. One other driver who is chasing a championship is Ryan Reed and he suffered rear end damage, but was able to get back out on the track, as did Allgaier heavily taped together.
Wallace took a major hit to his championship hopes although there are still two more events before the Field of 8 is trimmed in half before the season finale at Homestead-Miami.
“It was a really hard hit for us, the whole team really,” he said. “This [number] 6 Leitos Ford team was working hard to get a good finish. I think we could have picked off a couple spots for a top-10 to set us up for a really good day. It is just unfortunate. I hate it for our guys. We worked really hard overnight to get this thing where it needed to be. We were still off in some areas but it was good to start figuring out a rhythm and knowing some key points going into Texas in a couple weeks. We will move on. It is alright. We aren’t knocked out. It is just motivation to go to Texas.”
Erik Jones suffered a late race incident with the No. 3 of Ty Dillon as he was pushing out to the lead after the restart with 17 laps to go forcing him to pit with left rear damage causing a severe tire rub. That would open the door for Daniel Suarez to be the lead car on the subsequent restart. He would be overtaken by Busch.
“He (Larson) said it was his fault,” said Jones. “He owned up to it, got me ran over. It is what it is. It’s the same situation to the 3 (Austin Dillon) and 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) last week in the Cup race. He just said he got a good start and there was no hole there, nowhere to go with the run he had just got into my left rear and turned us. It’s a shame, we both had fast cars. I had a fast Reser’s Camry and he was fast too and I’m sure we could have gotten up front and raced for it. We just needed laps to get a charge. Just unnecessary aggression, I’ve got a lot to lose and he’s got nothing to lose and that’s what’s tough in these races. It’s tough for him to be in that spot – I’ve been there. You still just have to use your head a little bit and can’t make those kind of mistakes.”
PIT NOTES:
Just 25 laps in, Daniel Suarez started to complain about popping noises coming out of his transmission and when it happened he would lose RPMs in the process. He hung around the top-10 and would finish third.
Cole Custer had a rough first half of the race being tagged in the rear twice spinning him into the grass. The JR Motorsports driver was relatively unscathed in the first incident, however, the second did serious damage to his No. 5 Camaro although with all the cautions he managed to climb back to one lap down when the race reached the halfway point. He was still hanging around until he got caught up in a wreck at lap 164.
Just moments before the fifth caution came out for a stalled car on pit row, Ryan Preece had a shock absorber blow through the top of his No. 01 Camaro and after bouncing around, it stuck in the grill of Ross Chastain’s No. 4 Camaro.
CAUTIONS:
Lap 58 – Fluid on the track from Matt Waltz, Brennan Poole gets free pass
— Five Chase drivers on lead lap at restart
Lap 69 – Cole Custer spins into grass, Darrell Wallace Jr. gets free pass
— Six Chase drivers on lead lap at restart
Lap 77 – Cole Custer spins into grass again, Matt DiBenedetto gets free pass
— Six Chase drivers on lead lap at restart
Lap 87 – Ray Black Jr. spins out, Brendan Gaughan get free pass
— Seven Chase drivers on lead lap at restart
Lap 103 – Derrike Cope stalls at end of pit road, JJ Yeley gets the free pass
— Seven Chase driver on lead lap at restart
Lap 110 – Debris on front stretch, Ross Chastain gets free pass
— Seven Chase drivers on lead lap at restart
Lap 158 – Debris on track, Kyle Busch gets free pass
— Seven Chase drivers on the lead laps at restart
Lap 164 – Crash: Three Chase drivers involved (Allgaier, Wallace, Reed)
— Four Chase drivers on lead lap at restart
Lap 176 – Brendan Gaughan spins into grass, Ross Chastain gets free pass
— Four Chase drivers on lead lap at restart
Lap 183 – Debris on track, Justin Allgaier gets free pass
— Four Chase drivers on lead lap at restart
XFINITY KANSAS LOTTERY 300 FINAL RESULTS:
1 – Kyle Busch
2 – Elliott Sadler
3 – Daniel Suarez
4 – Joey Logano
5 – Kyle Larson
6 – Regan Smith
7 – Brennan Poole
8 – Brandon Jones
9 – Blake Koch
10 – JJ Yeley
11 – Matt DiBenedetto
12 – Ty Dillon
13 – Ross Chastain
14 – Justin Allgaier
15 – Erik Jones
16 – Ryan Reed
17 – Austin Dillon
18 – Garrett Smithley
19 – Ray Black Jr.
20 – Dakoda Armstrong
21 – Jeff Green
22 – BJ McLeod
23 – Joey Gase
24 – David Starr
25 – Brandon Brown
26 – Martin Roy
27 – Josh Reaume
28 – Jeremy Clemens
29 – Jennifer Jo Cobb
30 – Mike Harmon
31 – Brennan Gaughan
32 – Ryan Preece
33 – Darrell Wallace Jr.
34 – Ryan Sieg
35 – Cole Custer
36 – Ryan Ellis
37 – Matt Waltz
38 – Derrike Cope
39 – Brandon Hightower
40 – Timmy Hill
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