NXS Recap – Busch Beats Them All

The Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200 was no match for Las Vegas, Nev. native Kyle Busch as he and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates continued their hot streak. The driver of the No. 18 NOS Energy Drink Toyota led 175 of 200 laps to capture his 79th NASCAR Xfinity Series win. He now has three straight victories in the series.

In a Toyota post-­race press release, Busch explained that he doesn’t really know why he’s been successful on the Arizona mile. “It’s just a knack for this place,” he said. “We’ve been off a little bit on the Cup side for years but here we seem to be a lot better. Last year, we improved a lot. I can’t say enough about Chris Gayle (crew chief) and everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. We didn’t sit on the pole but our teammates did.”

Busch mentioned that his teammates did indeed give him a run for his money. “They were obviously really fast and made me run hard all day long,” he said. “There was nothing left in this car. Instead of having to go back to the shop and freshen her a little bit, they’re going to have to rebuild.”

Busch is known for whipping the entire Xfinity field week after week but he believes it helps him on Sundays. “It’s fun to come here and participate,” said Busch. I learn a lot and I do that for a reason in order to try and make myself better on Sundays and hopefully it helps.”

Pole-­sitter Erik Jones took home a second-­place finish aboard his No. 20 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota. He now has three top­-10 finishes so far this season. Jones managed to lead five laps over 200 miles throughout the afternoon. Jones explained, also in the Toyota press release, how he came up short. “I thought we were just as good as them (No. 18 team) if not better and started to work underneath him (Busch),” Jones explained. “Then with the pit stop, we lost some ground coming off pit road and after that I was too tight and he started to run away. Just lost too much ground but overall a good day for the Reser’s Camry.”

After Phoenix, Daniel Suarez is still the Series points leader by eight points over Elliott Sadler. The driver of the No. 19 Juniper Networks Toyota earned his second top­10 finish in four races with today’s third place finish. Like Jones, Suarez explained his day. “In the second part of the race, maybe I got stuck a little bit in traffic and I was trying to be over-­agressive to make my way back to the front,” said Suarez. “After that, the car was al little bit too tight. I just need to keep working and minimizing my mistakes and try again next week.”

Next week, the Xfinity Series heads to Auto Club Speedway. Race coverage begins at 12:30 PM PT (track time), 3:30 PM ET on FS1, MRN and Sirius XM Channel 90.

Here are the final results:

  1. Kyle Busch
  2. Erik Jones
  3. Daniel Suarez
  4. Justin Allgaier
  5. Chase Elliott
  6. Ty Dillon
  7. Austin Dillon
  8. Elliott Sadler
  9. Brad Keselowski
  10. Brennan Poole
Katie Williams
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