Mar. 12, 2016
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
AVONDALE, Ariz. – Kyle Busch calls it a “knack.”
His rivals might refer to the continuing saga of Kyle Busch at Phoenix International Raceway as absolute dominance.
But
the record books will show Saturday’s result in the Axalta Faster.
Tougher. Brighter. 200 as yet another NASCAR XFINITY Series victory for
the Busch juggernaut.
Leading
175 of 200 laps at the one-mile race track, Busch notched his ninth
victory in 20 starts at PIR. That’s the highest total number of wins by a
single driver at an active
XFINITY Series venue. (Mark Martin holds the all-time single track
record with 11 victories at Rockingham.)
In
winning for the third-straight time this season and the 79th time in
his career—extending his own series record—Busch has now led 493 of a
possible 563 laps in his three
2016 starts.
“It’s
just a knack for this place, I guess,” Busch said. “We’ve been off a
little bit on the (Sprint) Cup side for years, but this year we seem to
be a lot better, and last
year we improved a lot. But the XFINITY program has always been good.”
In
fact, it was good for the entire Joe Gibbs Racing organization, which
started 1-2-3, with pole winner Erik Jones and Daniel Suárez leading
Busch in qualifying, and finished
1-2-3, with Jones and Suárez trailing Busch to the finish line by 2.285
and 9.980 seconds, respectively.
Busch,
Suárez and Jones also ran 1-2-3 in that order a week earlier at Las
Vegas, a further indication of just how much JGR has gapped the
competition.
Justin Allgaier was a distant fourth in Saturday’s race, more than 14 seconds behind the winner.
“I
can’t say enough about (crew chief) Chris Gayle and everyone at Joe
Gibbs Racing,” Busch said. “Obviously, (they) did a great job for me,
giving me the car that I needed
and prepared everything for today’s race.
“We
didn’t sit on the pole, but our teammates did. They were obviously
really fast, and they made me run hard all day long. I mean, there was
nothing left in this car. It’s
all used up. Instead of having to go back to the shop and freshen her
up a little bit, they’re going to have to rebuild it.”
The
race ran without caution for the final 99 laps, and on Lap 172, Jones
caught Busch in traffic and pulled alongside. But Busch regained control
of the top spot and led Jones
to pit road for a two-tire green-flag stop on Lap 177.
That stop proved crucial, with Busch gaining more than three seconds in the exchange.
“I
knew we were in a little bit of trouble when he rolled by, right when
we were just trying to leave the box,” Jones said. “I didn’t know how
much time that was going to equal
to, but by the time we got up to speed, he was four or five seconds
ahead. It was too much to run back down in that amount of time.”
Suárez
expanded his series lead to eight points over Elliott Sadler, who
finished eighth. Chase Elliott followed JR Motorsports teammate Allgaier
in fifth, with the Dillon
brothers, Ty and Austin, running sixth and seventh.
Brad
Keselowski and Brennan Poole completed the top 10. With three victories
to its credit, the No. 18 JGR Camry leads the owners’ standings by
seven points over the No. 88
JR Motorsports all-star car driven by Elliott on Saturday.
Note:
In post-race inspection, Jones' No. 20 was cited for rear toe outside
of tolerance when measured by the laser inspection station. NASCAR will
address possible sanctions
at next week's competition meeting.
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