Kyle Busch didn’t lead the most laps, nor did he have the fastest truck. But he still found a way to make it to victory lane.
“We started fifth and I was behind most of those guys throughout the early portion of the race,” Busch said in victory lane.
Starting out front was one of Busch’s drivers for his Kyle Busch Motorsports team; Darrell Wallace Jr.
Wallace Jr. grabbed the led from the drop of the green flag and led a race-high 119 of the race’s 200 laps.
“We had a good first half of the race,” a somewhat dejected Wallace Jr. said after finishing tenth. “Right as we put on new tires on the green-flag stop, all of the truck rubber just made it free.”
Once Wallace Jr.’s truck was out of the picture for the win, the race came down to a duel between Busch and Matt Crafton.
Restarting on the outside lane – the lane that proved to be the quickest on the day — Busch was able to get the jump on Crafton and drive away from the rest of the field.
“We showed our strength on the short runs, but Kyle just had the speed on the short runs,” Crafton said about the end of the race. “All-in-all, not a terrible day.”
Busch’s run to the win may not have been without as easy as it appeared if not for two speeding penalties for rookie Chase Elliott.
Elliott, who started second, had arguably the second-fastest truck in the race – next to Wallace Jr. – was caught speeding exiting pit road on the first round of pit stops which forced him to serve a pass-through penalty.
With strategy in his favor, Elliott found himself back in the lead under green-flag pit stops by the leaders. However, the son of 1988 Cup Series champion Bill Elliott was tagged with another penalty; sending him to the back-end of the lead-lap trucks.
“It was me one-hunreded-percent,” an apologetic Elliott said after the race. “I’m here to take the blame for it…I messed up.
“I’d like to say we’d be battling for a win had we been in the right position if we didn’t mess up.”
Despite the two penalties, Elliott salvaged a fourth-place finish.
“I’m tired of Kyle Busch winning as everybody else is and I want to be the first one to stop that,” Elliott said.
By leading twice for 50 laps, Busch picked up his second victory in the Camping World Truck Series of 2013; his third victory in a truck at Dover; and his thirty-second career win in the Truck Series.
“Just don’t lead all of the laps early,” Busch joked about winning at Dover. “Just sneak up on them I guess.
“I was just trying to plug my way at them and these [trucks] were just so evil out behind other trucks. I had to move around and start searching, and fortunately I had some of that in this truck.”
Crafton holds a 35-point lead over the second place drivers Jeb Burton and Brendan Gaughan in the championship standings.
The next race for the Camping World Truck Series is June 7 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
Lucas Oil 200 Unofficial Results
- Kyle Busch
- Matt Crafton
- Ryan Blaney
- Chase Elliott
- Brendan Gaughan
- Timothy Peters
- Johnny Sauter
- Joey Coulter
- Jeb Burton
- Darrell Wallace Jr.
- John Wes Tonwley
- Ron Hornaday Jr.
- German Quiroga
- David Starr
- James Buescher
- Ross Chastain
- Ryan Sieg
- Miguel Paludo
- Todd Bodine
- Caleb Holman
- Dakoda Armstrong
- Bryan Silas
- Jeff Agnew
- Brennan Newberry
- Tim George Jr.
- Kyle Martel
- Jennifer Jo Cobb
- Max Gresham
- Norm Benning
- CJ Faison
- Ty Dillon
- Mike Harmon
- Danny Efland
- Chris Jones
- Chris Lafferty
- Johnny Chapman
About the Author
RT @OnPitRoad_: NEW: Busch wins Dover, young drivers impress #NASCAR http://t.co/E4KExA5xfG
From yesterday: @KyleBusch wins truck race, but @BubbaWallace and @chaseelliott among impressive youth. http://t.co/E4KExA5xfG