FORT WORTH, Texas – On paper, Kyle Busch dominated Friday night’s SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
But the final laps were anything but that.
Busch held off a hard charging Christian Eckes with Corey Heim and Nick Sanchez looming behind by just .112 seconds. Busch’s third consecutive win in the DFW metro would increase his total to six victories, tying the series best held by Todd Bodine.
“Great team, everybody here at Spire [Motorsports]. They definitely kept me honest, I’ll give them that,” said Busch, crediting the field with the final fight.
“Corey [Heim] kept us honest right there. He started to find that top over there and got some momentum over there with three to go. I chattered really bad, so my front just wasn’t working over there. He made it and got to my rear bumper getting into [turn] three and I just didn’t know which way to go so I ran the middle then to the bottom and then he slipped up top and I guess we had enough of a gap after that.”
Heim was caught in the middle of the big fight between Eckes and Busch. On the front stretch with nine laps remaining, Heim chose the inside lane to push Busch forward for what would be the final pass for the lead.
“It just seemed like a big track position game at the end there,” said the 21-year-old Heim. “He’d get really big runs on the straightaways and once you get to the corner it’s really hard to stay behind someone and keep the momentum.
“I did all I could there trying to pick up three [positions] on that last restart but got another caution there unfortunately and just tried to build a run on him, but he’s just too good and does a really good job. Really happy with our run tonight, picked up stage points and finished second.”
Sanchez finished third after winning the pole and getting valuable stage points. He would leave Fort Worth with the most points earned in the 167-lap event.
Eckes led half of the final 18 laps until Busch passed him for the lead. Eckes would make a charge to push back to the lead, but went wide into the marbles and dropped back to fourth when the checkered flag waved.
All lap leaders finished in the top five, including fellow full-time Cup Series driver Zane Smith with his fifth-place effort.
Daniel Dye finished sixth. Gray brothers Taylor and Tanner finish seventh and eighth respectively. Stefan Parsons’ ninth position gathered his second top 10 finish in his four part-time Truck Series starts. Ty Majeski completed the top 10 results.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will have a two-weekend break before their next scheduled race at Kansas Speedway on May 4 for the Heart of America 200 (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).