Kyle Busch takes fourth consecutive truck series win
May 16, 2014
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
CONCORD, N.C.— After Friday night's dominating performance at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch
is a full-fledged, bona fide member of the "Untouchables," at least where the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is concerned.
Leading
130 of 134 laps after starting his Toyota on the pole for the North
Carolina Education Lottery 200, Busch claimed his third truck series
triumph in as many starts this
season and his fourth consecutive dating to last year’s season finale
at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The victory was Busch’s 38th in the series and his sixth at Charlotte.
“It was
a fun race for us,” Busch said. “We certainly had a dominant piece. We
were just really, really strong, especially on the long runs. I beat ‘em
a little bit here or
there, but it seemed like in traffic, I didn’t lose as much as most of
the other guys.”
Matt
Crafton ran second, giving Busch and the defending series champion their
second straight 1-2 finish after last week’s run at Kansas Speedway.
Brad
Keselowski came home third, followed by John Wes Townley, who posted his
career-best result. Timothy Peters ran fifth after pitting for tires
under the final caution.
After the race, Keselowski summed up Busch’s dominance succinctly.
“I think Kyle is probably in a class of his own,” Keselowski said. “It would have been a great race if Kyle wasn’t here.”
Keselowski got a quick second from Crafton.
“It’s
damned frustrating to finish second to him two weeks in a row,” said
Crafton, who extended his series lead to 11 points over Peters.
Busch
had led 100 of the first 104 laps – the only exceptions coming when Joe
Nemechek stayed out under the fifth caution – when Townley knocked Ryan
Blaney’s Ford into the
infield grass from a three-wide logjam in the tri-oval.
Townley
careened into the outside wall, collecting the Toyota of Brian Ickler,
to cause the seventh caution, a yellow-flag period that gave contending
trucks behind Busch the
chance to pit for new tires.
Keselowski,
on new tires, advanced from 10th to seventh after a restart on Lap 114,
but on that same lap, Ron Hornaday Jr. spun on the backstretch across
the nose of Turner
Scott Motorsports teammate Ben Kennedy, collecting the trucks of Mason
Mingus and Jake Crum in the process.
“I had a good run, and I thought I cleared Ben, and I didn’t,” Hornaday explained, apologizing for the contact.
Keselowski
climbed to third after the final restart with 13 laps left but couldn’t
catch Crafton for second. The race ended under caution when Jeb Burton
spun through the tri-oval
grass after Busch had taken the white flag.
Notes:
The victory was the sixth straight in the series for Toyota, dating to
November 2013 and matching the manufacturer’s longest NCWTS streak. ...
Busch has won 38 times
in 118 truck series starts, a remarkable winning percentage of 32.2.
... Busch scored his 29th perfect driver rating in NASCAR’s top three
national series combined.
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