By Jerry Jordan, Editor
HAMPTON, Ga. – Kyle Busch edged out Stewart Friesen in a photo finish in the Craftsman Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and had it not been for his drafting ability and knowing when to make his move, the result could have been flipped.
Busch traded the lead multiple times over the final 10 laps, leaving fans on the edge of their seats as he somehow battled back each time to take over the point. Friesen, Chandler Smith, Grant Enfinger and Tyler Ankrum all had a shot in the final laps but every time they would get ahead, Busch would overtake them, drafting off their door in the low lane.
It was to a point that it looked as if Busch was simply toying with them as he padded his career win record in the truck series. Busch now holds 67 wins in 176 truck series starts.
“I was trying to hold that inside lane back each time,” Busch told Kickin’ the Tires, after the race. “I kept crawling forward, I kept trying to pull it back and then get the outside lane to push forward. And really, the outside just didn’t stay organized enough. It was really dirty up there. You know, we weren’t clean and close and keeping the gaps and being able to push down a straight away and get the big speed. The big speed that we needed. So, you know that what, that’s what kept the inside, the inside was better organized, and they just kept being able to get up there.”
Busch said he thought the bottom line would fade out but it never did. He was working the top line, which he thought had the most energy.
“So I kept trying to slow it down. Just couldn’t do it,” Busch said. “I was just kind of like, okay, each time one of those guys gets up in front of me, then I need to make sure that I get back in front of them and to get back into control of, you know, eventually thinking that the bottom lane was going to deteriorate and fall off, which it never did.
“It was, you know, pretty dicey there towards the end and a good show for the fans. Great to be able to finish a superspeedway race without a slew of cautions and crashes, you know, so good race in there. You know that inside lane materialized … I chose the wrong line off of two coming to the white flag. I should have stayed low in front of Friesen. I believe it was him, you know, I went to the top because I thought the top would have the run off of (turn) two. And that’s how Friesen got by me.”
The mistake actually paid off because as he was going down the backstretch and into Turn 3, he said Bayley Currey gave him the push he needed to catch back up to Friesen and drag race him to the checkered flag.
