Kyle Busch bounced back from a disqualification earlier in the day in the Xfinity Series to dominate and win Saturday night’s Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Busch was disqualified after winning the Xfinity race due to the height of his car being too low. But everything was right after winning the Truck race, his series-best 59th triumph.
It was Busch’s fifth career win in a Truck at Texas. It also was his fifth and final start in a Truck this season, winning three of those (the others were Las Vegas and Homestead).
“Technically, I haven’t won yet, so put it over the sticks,” Busch quipped to FS1 after the race but before post-race inspection, still smarting from the Xfinity race DQ.
His young Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate, Christian Eckes, finished second. Defending Truck Series champion Matt Crafton equaled his season-best showing by finishing third, Stewart Friesen had a season-best fourth place finish and Brett Moffitt was fifth.
STAGE 1 WINNER: Kyle Busch
STAGE 2 WINNER: Brett Moffitt
WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Matt Crafton struggled all race long with alternator and battery issues that included cutting out his air conditioning, yet still managed to finish third, equaling his best finish of the season. “That probably was the hottest I’ve ever been in a race car without any helmet blower. It was grueling without a doubt,” Crafton said.
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Todd Gilliland was battling Ben Rhodes for fifth place with 16 laps to go when they made contact, sending Gilliland into the wall and out of the race, finishing 27th and ending a streak of five straight top-10 finishes.
NOTABLE: Johnny Sauter’s motor blew up with under 20 laps left and running ninth in Stage 2, leaving him with a 33rd place finish. “I thought we were going to win this race tonight, I’m telling you,” Sauter said over his team radio while taking his truck to the garage. The issue could have significance on Sauter’s hopes to make the playoffs: he came into Saturday’s race in the 10th and final playoff spot and left 12th, 22 points now below the cut line.
WHAT’S NEXT: Truck Series doubleheader weekend at Kansas Speedway – Friday, July 24 (7 p.m. ET) and Saturday, July 25 (1:30 p.m. ET), both to be televised on FS1.
