By Jerry Jordan, Editor
FORT WORTH, Texas – After winning NASCAR’s truck race the night before, Kyle Busch went out Saturday afternoon and notched another mark on his belt – getting the victory in the Xfinity Series race and now looking for a sweep of the weekend should he win Sunday’s Cup Series main event.
“I’ve been close before,” Busch said, of his potential to sweep the weekend. “I don’t know how many times I’ve won two of the three – it’s been too many. Certainly, to have the opportunity to go after another one here is good, means a lot. You first have to win the first one, and then two to have the chance for the third. Fortunately, I’m in that position and I’ve got a better Interstate Batteries Camry than I did yesterday. In practice today we worked on it and tuned on it and made some headway, but still probably not quite where I’d like it to be, but we have to race it out. It’s going to be an interesting race tomorrow I think for sure.”
In Saturday’s race, Busch said he thought his teammate Christopher Bell had the best car but Bell was relegated to a third-place finish. The two battled during the race with Bell leading 127 laps and Busch only at the front for 33 laps.
“Overall, Christopher Bell ran a great race,” Busch said. “He should’ve won this thing today.
“He’s a good one and I think he’s going to be somebody for our future. I don’t know exactly how much of our future, but obviously just how successful he can be, I think the sky’s the limit. I think he’s got it. He’s done a really good job, he’s really smooth. Today, he did a fantastic job. There was a time off of (turn) two he made it three-wide on me and got the lead — that was going to be his race, that was going to be the winning move and then it just came down to the end and all the shenanigans with pit road and everything else. Overall, he did a good job. There’s been times this year where there’s been some things that have happened to him that haven’t been his fault and I’m sure that’s frustrating on his behalf, but for them to have a win and be in the Playoffs, they’re good, they’re going to be solid going forward.”
For Busch the win at TMS was a bit of a surprise because when he came in on the final pitstop he wasn’t expecting to take fuel-only. Not taking tires was a gamble that paid off for a change because Busch said he has been down that road before and it didn’t fair well for the outcome of the race. That wasn’t the case Saturday. The win marked his 95th Xfinity win in 349 starts for an average win ratio of 27.2 percent. It also marked his third win in four series starts this season and an overall career win total of 203.
“Get into your box and we only did fuel, so it was relatively quick,” said Busch on the execution of the final stop. “The guys obviously didn’t have a whole lot to do – just getting the fuel engaged and being able to them get out of the box and not stall it or anything like that. We were racing the 2 (Tyler Reddick) there on exit, I knew we were kind of close to him and thankfully we were able to beat him out to be in control of the restart. That’s what won us the race was just being first and being in control of the restart. I could go when I wanted to, and I got a good launch and was able to get single file before we got to turn one. That was the best thing for us all day. Every time I had people alongside of me or on my sides, they were side-drafting me and everything else. I just could never get away and once I was free and away from cars, I could make ground and pass people back and go back towards the front. It was just aggravating sometimes for me, but overall pit road was good.”
Reddick ended up second in the day and said he’s been close to finding Victory Lane all season but hasn’t quite closed the deal. The defending Xfinity Series Champion is leading the points by 12 over Bell and looking to defend his title with his new team at Richard Childress Racing. He was previously at JR Motorsports for several years.
“We have a good string of top-five finishes going right now,” Reddick said. “Today, we just struggled a little bit finding a good balance that worked for both Turns 1 and 2 and turns 3 and 4 since they’re so different here at Texas Motor Speedway, but we really hit on something at the end of the race and the car came to life. If I could run the top line for restarts and then continue it during a run, the handling was much more consistent throughout a run. We’re so close to putting RCR in Victory Lane for the first time this year. We just need a little bit more.”
The finish also qualified him for the $100,000 Dash4Cash bonus event next week at Bristol Motor Speedway, along with Bell, Briscoe and Michael Annett.
NASCAR Xfinity Series Race – 23rd Annual My Bariatric Solutions 300
Texas Motor Speedway
Fort Worth, Texas
Saturday, March 30, 2019
1. (5) Kyle Busch(i), Toyota, 200.
2. (3) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 200.
3. (1) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 200.
4. (15) Chase Briscoe #, Ford, 200.
5. (6) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 200.
6. (13) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 200.
7. (11) Justin Haley #, Chevrolet, 200.
8. (14) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Toyota, 200.
9. (8) John Hunter Nemechek #, Chevrolet, 200.
10. (19) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 200.
11. (9) Austin Cindric #, Ford, 200.
12. (4) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 200.
13. (16) Noah Gragson #, Chevrolet, 200.
14. (22) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 200.
15. (23) Ronnie Bassett Jr, Chevrolet, 199.
16. (18) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 199.
17. (21) Brandon Brown #, Chevrolet, 199.
18. (12) Kaz Grala, Chevrolet, 198.
19. (24) Tommy Joe Martins, Toyota, 198.
20. (31) David Starr, Chevrolet, 198.
21. (20) Gray Gaulding(i), Chevrolet, 198.
22. (30) Stephen Leicht, Chevrolet, 198.
23. (35) Chad Finchum, Toyota, 197.
24. (37) Joey Gase, Toyota, 196.
25. (34) Vinnie Miller, Chevrolet, 196.
26. (17) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 196.
27. (29) Matt Mills, Chevrolet, 194.
28. (33) Tyler Hill(i), Toyota, 191.
29. (36) Mike Harmon, Chevrolet, 189.
30. (26) Josh Bilicki, Chevrolet, 184.
31. (38) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, Engine, 160.
32. (28) BJ McLeod, Chevrolet, 138.
33. (2) Brandon Jones, Toyota, Accident, 133.
34. (7) Cole Custer, Ford, Accident, 132.
35. (25) Ray Black II, Chevrolet, Accident, 79.
36. (10) Brad Keselowski(i), Ford, Accident, 68.
37. (32) Timmy Hill, Toyota, Brakes, 20.
38. (27) Jeff Green, Chevrolet, Brakes, 16.