LAS VEGAS – For the second week in a row, Kyle Busch was simply in a league of his own in NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series competition.
Busch roared to victory in Friday night’s Strat 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a clean sweep of the night’s action. He started on pole, led the most laps and topped all three stages en route to the win.
In total, the hometown favorite led 111 of 134 laps, cruising to the checkered flag 1.211 seconds ahead of defending Truck Series champion Brett Moffitt.
Friday night marked the third-straight Truck Series win for Busch in as many appearances, dating back to last summer at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, as well as his record-extending 53rd career series triumph.
Despite the outward appearance of his dominant performance, Busch noted that he still battled the handling of his No. 51 Cessna Toyota Tundra throughout the night.
“We were tight,” said Busch in victory lane. We fought it in practice a little bit, but we had to work on it an awful lot to make it better. Rudy and these guys did an amazing job on this Cessna Tundra. It was really, really fast. Every pit stop we came in, we worked on it and it got us to victory lane tonight.”
Busch is running all three NASCAR national series races this weekend in Las Vegas, and now has a shot at sweeping a tripleheader weekend for the third time in his career.
“It’s cool to win here in your hometown, and being in Las Vegas,” Busch noted. “Starting off a triple-weekend strong, now the hope is obviously that we can keep it going.
“I think the hardest one is going to be the second one, honestly … I don’t know,” added Busch. “We obviously had a really fast truck tonight and Rudy made things easier for me. We worked really hard on this thing. We didn’t start great in practice. Hopefully, we’ll get to celebrate here again tomorrow.”
Other than the two stage breaks, the only caution of the night was for a four-truck incident on the frontstretch at lap six involving Sheldon Creed, Cory Roper, Ross Chastain and Matt Crafton.
The final stage ran uninterrupted, with a cycle of green-flag, two-tire pit stops in the closing laps.
Busch regained the lead for good with 17 to go, but it didn’t come without a quick challenge from Moffitt, who ran up within a truck length of Busch’s rear bumper with 15 laps left.
However, Busch moved down in turns three and four in front of Moffitt and packed dirty air on the front of the No. 24 Allegiant Travel Chevrolet, dropping Moffitt back and forcing him to settle for second.
“I just got loose behind him. We were both on two tires there,” Moffitt said. “It was just hard. We had to really use up our stuff driving back to the front. Another pit road mistake cost us a lot tonight. I’m not saying we could’ve beat him, but it sure would’ve been nice to have a little bit more time there.
“In dirty air, there’s only one groove in (turns) three and four there. I tried to get close enough to pack air on his spoiler,” Moffitt added. “I knew it was going to be a make-or-break move … but that’s what I decided to do and (after that) I just could never get back to him.”
Crafton rebounded from damage sustained in the early crash on the frontstretch to finish third, followed by Stewart Friesen and Harrison Burton.
Sheldon Creed, Todd Gilliland, Johnny Sauter and Ryan Reed were the remaining trucks on the lead lap, with Chastain completing the top 10, one lap down at the checkered flag.
To view complete race results, advance to the next page.