NCTS: Kyle Busch Wins Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas

Kyle Busch visited victory lane for the 63rd time in his Craftsman Truck Series career on Friday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Busch, racing at his home track dubbed as Sin City, won the pole and led 84 of the 134 laps of the Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200.

“There were a couple dicey moments in traffic—not too bad—but I would have loved to have raced with Zane,” said Busch after the race to FS1. “They kind of got off strategy where we were able to cycle up, and we got clean air for most of the start of that last run.”

Zane Smith sat 4.981 seconds behind the winner to earn the runner-up finish at the 1.5-mile oval. Smith started seventh and led eight circuits, scoring his 27th top-five and 49th career top-10 finish.

Having seven career starts at his home track in the truck series, Busch earned his fourth Craftsman Truck Series victory at Las Vegas and will leave with six top-five and seven top-10 finishes. Busch already has sights set on winning Saturday’s XFINITY Series and Sunday’s Cup Series events also at Las Vegas this weekend.

“All in all, just a great night here, to be able to win in Las Vegas again—and you’ve got to win the first to be able to win all three. Right?,” he added in his victory interview.

Ben Rhodes sat third behind the wheel of the No. 99 Ford with team ThorSport Racing after a ninth-place start. In the second event of the year in the new season, the leader of two circuits leaves with his first top-five finish of 2023.

Corey Heim and Ty Majeski rounded out the top five.

Taking home top 10s were Christian Eckes, Carson Hocevar, Chase Purdy, Grant Enfinger, and Jake Garcia.

Garcia captured his first career top-10 on Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway piloting the No. 35 Chevrolet entry for McAnally HilgeMann Racing. The Georgia driver with sponsorship from Quanta started 14th on the leaderboard.

The field slowed six times due to caution and had an average speed of 173.038 mph.

The most notable crash drew the sixth and final yellow flag of the race on lap 61 on the backstretch involving Hailie Deegan, John Hunter Nemechek, and Ross Chastain. Chastain continued to eventually place 24th and four laps down while Nemecvhek and Deegan went to the garage.

The next race for the Craftsman Truck Series will take place at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 18th live on FS1 and MRN Radio.

Brett Winningham
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