Kyle Busch overcame a speeding penalty to lead a total of 44 laps in the 100-lap Careers for Veterans 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Michigan worldwide Speedway in Brooklyn on Saturday to claim his second Truck Series win of the season in only his second series start of the season.
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Still, Busch won the race despite being penalized on the 27th lap for speeding as he entered the pits, which sent him to the rear of the field, and came back to win a race that had four cautions in the final 30 laps.
En route, he urged Erik Jones – who drives for Busch’s Trucks team – to make a decision in the final laps of the race.
After Matt Crafton and Daniel Hemrick started on the front row and combined to lead the first six laps, Busch took the lead for the first time on lap seven.
Busch led the rest of the way with Blaney finishing second followed by 19-year-old Erik Jones, a Swartz Creek grad and Busch’s teammate who was making his debut at the track.
“Those last restarts, I wasn’t sure how it was going to play out”, Busch said. The veteran driver would edge Blaney by just. “There’s nothing as a leader you can do about it”.
Blaney was able to jump to the lead when the race resumed, and not even working together was enough to get Hemric and Dillon back the front. After that, it’s the KBM #51 in fourth place ahead of Sauter’s #98, while Blaney’s BKR #29 truck is sixth. Blaney finished 0.157 seconds behind.
“We got the lead on the restart there; that was good for us to get the lead”, Blaney said.
“It was exciting, and I felt like we learned a lot and are better prepared for next time”, said the Swartz Creek graduate during a post-race press conference.
Brad Keselowski’s foundation and the Cooper Standard Foundation, a business partner of the Rochester Hills racer, were the presenting sponsors of the race. We were close today.
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“I looked up at the roof and the roof was caving in”, said Crafton, who also watched the windshield convex. “And when I did, I was like, ‘aaagh.’ It just kept carrying”. Jones’ third-place run moved him to within one point of Crafton.
