Kyle Busch rallied from a pit road speeding penalty and passed Austin Cindric in Turn 3 on the final lap of overtime to win Monday night’s Xfinity Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“Aaaaahhhhhhh,” Cindric yelled on his radio after the race. “(Dang) it. I tried. I never lifted.”
The victory is Busch’s ninth Xfinity win in 27 career starts at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The victory also is Busch’s first win in the series this year and 97th in his career.
Daniel Hemric finished second. Cindric, who had older tires than the top two finishers, fell third on the final lap and was followed by Ross Chastain and Justin Allgaier.
Multiple cautions in the last 30 laps thinned the field of contenders, damaging the cars of Noah Gragson, Justin Haley and Brandon Jones.
The race changed dramatically with about 45 laps left in the middle of green-flag pit stops. Kyle Busch, who had been leading, Chase Briscoe and Jones each were hit with pit road speeding penalties. It was the second consecutive Xfinity race Busch had been penalized for speeding on pit road.
Timmy Hill then had an engine blow and dropped fluid on the track. Briscoe and Chastain, who had led earlier and appeared to be the biggest threat to Busch, each hit the fluid and hit the wall.
That was just part of a rough night for Briscoe, who won last week at Darlington. He was penalized or an uncontrolled tire and speeding on separate stops. He also hit the wall a second time before finishing 20th.
STAGE 1 WINNER: Kyle Busch
STAGE 2 WINNER: Kyle Busch
WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Daniel Hemric finished second, scoring his sixth career runner-up finish. … Although he lost the lead on the last lap, Austin Cindric placed third for his fifth top 10 of the season. … Ross Chastain came back from hitting the wall to place a season-high fourth. … Justin Allgaier was fifth and has back-to-back top-five results. … Brett Moffitt placed sixth, his best career finish in the series.
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Points leader Chase Briscoe had two pit road penalties and hit the wall hard a couple of times before finishing 20th. … Tommy Joe Martins was running 10th late when a crash in front of him sent him into the inside SAFER barrier on the backstretch, ending his race in 24th.
NOTABLE: Harrison Burton finished ninth. He’s placed in the top 10 in all six races to open the season, the best start to a season by a series rookie.
WHAT’S NEXT: The series races at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway on FS1.
Tommy Joe Martins@TommyJoeMartinsBasically a throwaway. Bent the floorboard it hit so hard. Hardest hit of my life. Just wanna thank everyone up front for not being able to make it 2 laps under green.
