“This is pretty big”. “There’s been a lot of rough days at Kansas, that’s for sure”. “From where the auto was yesterday, to change pretty much everything on the vehicle and have it be that competitive on the racetrack today says a lot about our team”, said. This thing was awesome tonight.
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It was Busch’s first career win at Kansas, leaving only two tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule – Charlotte Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway – at which he is still winless. He wouldn’t be the top-finishing rookie, however, as Ryan Blaney would charge late to a fifth-place finish, his second career top five and first at an intermediate track.
“You know, it’s our best finish of the year”. “I’m sort of happy for Kyle and Adam, but seriously happy for everyone at JGR”. “I was going for it and it just didn’t pan out”.
Martin Truex, Jr. appeared to have the superior vehicle, but he was forced to make two pit stops late in the race, opening the door for Busch and others.
But how can you not pull, though, for Martin Truex Jr. and that No. 78 team? “Went around (turns) one and two and was like, ‘Wheel’s loose.’ I kept telling myself that maybe it’s not me; maybe it’s just shaking because it has tape on it or something stupid. I guess I should have known”, Busch told the Associated Press. Frustrating, but that’s how it goes. To regroup resettle Landon and get my vehicle back underneath me and and that was if they keep forced. From blown tires to getting caught up in other driver’s wrecks, Busch never could get a handle on the heartland track. His downfall was a loose wheel on the final pit stop that put him a lap down, a deficit that he was unable to recover from. Busch said that is the type of “challenge” which he looks forward to every race. “I appreciate how nice it is to reel off several wins like this”. I knew our vehicle was best out front. “I had trouble in traffic all night long”. “But in a sport where we have so many great teams, great owners out there, it’s so competitive, this is very, very hard to get on a hot streak”.
As Busch had sprinted out ahead of the field, Denny Hamlin went three-wide between Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson. He led 99 of the first 134 laps. He temporarily lost the lead to another Toyota driver, Kyle Busch, on pit road. Harvick, who vaulted past Kenseth on the final re-start, couldn’t find a way past Busch.
Joe Gibbs Racing is Toyota and don’t forget that the No. 78 has an alliance with the organization, so they are basically a branch off the family tree. He got to Busch’s rear bumper – and then some – exiting Turn 4. That accident would force him out of the remainder of the race, as he was unable to get his auto repaired.
Larson, meanwhile, made the most of the second and third restarts of the race, running at the top of the track and picking off multiple positions when the race returned to green. Drivers can cover the one-mile lap in less than 23 seconds at a speeds in excess of 160 miles per hour. Perhaps Kenseth gets the nod if only because blues man Jason Vivone has written a song about the Wisconsin driver’s inability to convert fast cars into victory called The Kenseth Blues. “He was right on my bumper there for a few laps”.
NOTES: Martin Truex Jr. led a Toyota sweep of the top-three in qualifying.
A technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing buoyed Furniture Row, then running Chevrolets, past year – and Truex would advance deeper into the Chase than any of RCR’s three drivers.
The wreck took Hamlin and Logano, who has won the last two fall races at Kansas, out of contention. Johnson suffered an engine issue in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet during practice on Friday.
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Kyle Busch celebrates on the finish line after winning a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., Saturday, May 7, 2016. Early success highlighted the organization’s beginnings, but up until recently (despite Trevor Bayne’s 2011 Daytona 400 upset victory), the team hit a dry spell.in 2016 Ryan Blaney no doubt has the chance to end that.
