Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) driver Kyle Busch took home a second-place finish Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) in Fort Worth, his 14th top-10 result in 17 races in the Lone-Star state. Busch who was the highest finishing Toyota driver and led 38 of 200 laps in the 300 mile race, has now earned six top-five finishes in six races with his No. 54 Monster Energy team. The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran has now led 1,381 of 3,411 NNS laps in 17 races at Texas (approximately 40 percent).
During initial on-track activity on Thursday, with drastic weather conditions pending, Busch and team exhibited a strong race car in the first of two practice sessions, posting the second-fastest lap time at one point. Then during the final practice session when a severe thunderstorm, and hail, moved over the Texas racetrack NASCAR was forced to halt activity. The team would look to continue momentum during qualifying on Friday, prior to the evening race start.
Busch and his Monster Energy crew didn’t have that opportunity, however, as a delay in the team’s technical inspection process caused by a rear camber number that didn’t pass NASCAR standards, forced the team to miss the first group qualifying session, which therefore recorded them out of qualifying contention. Based on points and with three other competitors also not passing NASCAR’s technical templates, Busch and his Monster Energy team would begin 36th at the drop of the green flag for the start of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300.
As the sun set over the Fort Worth area, the Nationwide Series began their trek towards 200 laps covering 300 miles and Busch didn’t waste any time moving from the rear of the pack towards the front of the field. Within the first green-flag lap the Monster Energy athlete secured 11 spots, and then moved to 20th by lap three. At lap 12 he was within the top-10, then top-five at lap 23 and into the third-place spot at lap 29. “The car’s really good dude – real smooth,” Busch described to his crew chief Adam Stevens, who called out good lap times over the radio.
Front-runners one-quarter through the race consisted of Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Regan Smith and Busch’s JGR teammate Matt Kenseth. Further into the race and from the second-place position Busch continued to relay feedback on the car’s handling, “I can be tight and loose a tad, and it’s pretty well balanced. I want to say tighten it up but I think we just need some air pressure, just a tad here and there.”
The two-time 2014 race winners had the opportunity to service Busch’s Toyota Camry on lap 43 under a yellow-flag, when they provided four fresh Goodyear tires to their driver and returned him in position to battle for the race lead. By the race halfway point Busch took over that number one spot but started to feel his car’s handling shift towards the loose side.
Another pit stop with car adjustments proved helpful but didn’t make a difference, as the night progressed, and the track surface began to change, affecting the No. 54 further. On lap 135 Busch lost the lead to rookie Chase Elliott who would eventually become the race winner, leaving Busch to take the checkered flag in second place.
When interviewed post-race, the six-time Nationwide Series winner at Texas Motor Speedway described his night, “It just didn’t have the long run stay. I just kept falling loose there at the end — the last couple of runs. We tried adjusting on it and making it tighter and I just couldn’t get it tight enough. We didn’t get beat tonight. We got our butts handed to us. Chase Elliott kicked us tonight. Congratulations to those guys. It’s really awesome to see them. I know Greg (Ives, crew chief) and Chase (Elliott) and Bill (Elliott, father) — I know they’re all going to be really excited. So, it’s pretty neat. I like him because he’s a really good kid and I’ve raced against him in Late Models coming up and he’s always been a class act. He deserves it here and I’m sure he’ll get plenty more. Certainly it was fun battling with him there at the end. I know that we came up a little bit short, but he beat the best out there.”
With this top-five finish, the No. 54 Monster Energy team maintains first place in the Owner’s Point standings, now leading the field by 14 points with the J.D. Gibbs-owned Toyota.
Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Chase Elliott, son of NASCAR veteran Bill Elliott, won the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300, his first Nationwide Series victory in six series starts. The seasoned Monster Energy lap leader, Busch, led the field three times for 38 laps. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Matt Kenseth and Elliott Sadler finished sixth and 10th respectively. Busch, Kyle Larson, Harvick and Earnhardt Jr. completed the top-five finishers. There were five caution periods for 26 laps of the race along with 14 lead changes across nine drivers.
The NASCAR Nationwide Series resumes on April 11th at Darlington (SC) Raceway with race television broadcast starting at 7:30pm EST on ESPN2. Busch will make his seventh start of the season behind the wheel of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 Monster Energy Camry.
KBM PR
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