Photo Credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images for NASCAR
Atlanta; check. Las Vegas; check. Phoenix; check. Kyle Busch is three-for-three in XFINITY Series competition this year after leading 175 of 200 laps en route to his 79th career XFINITY win.
Erik Jones started the race on pole with teammate Daniel Suarez in second. Behind the pair of Joe Gibbs Racing teammates was the third JGR car driven by Busch. For the third consecutive race, the three JGR cars swept the top three starting positions.
Busch jumped to second on lap one, just before an early caution for a spin by David Starr in the No. 44. Starr made minor contact with the wall and was able to continue.
Shortly after the first restart on lap six, Busch made his way around his rookie teammate of Jones for the lead, and Busch wouldn’t look back until a caution on lap 90.
All of the lead lap cars would pit, but a number of cars took only two tires on the pit stop, dropping Busch to sixth on the restart. It took only 11 laps for Busch to make his way from sixth to take the lead away from Ty Dillon.
Brad Keselowski led nine laps late in the race in the midst of green flag pit stops, but it wasn’t enough to get in the way of the dominant car. Busch would go on to take a relatively easy win with his Joe Gibbs teammates Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez in tow.
Busch spoke in victory lane about what he learned moving forward to the Sprint Cup race tomorrow.
“This tire’s a lot different than what last year’s tire was,” said Busch. “To toss this car around, and run it as hard as I hard to run it all day, I really felt the tire degradation and the fall off that you got, so that’s gonna be interesting for tomorrow, especially with less downforce and more horsepower.”
Erik Jones finished second, however, failed post-race technical inspection due to a rear-toe issue found by NASCAR’s laser machine. Any potential penalties will likely be announced Tuesday.
Daniel Suarez’ third-place finish was his second top three run in as many races after starting on the outside of the front row. Suarez was once a winner at Phoenix in the NASCAR Mexico Series and was favored by many to score his first XFINITY Series win today.
Rounding out the top-10 behind the three JGR cars were Justin Allgaier, Chase Elliott, Ty Dillon, Austin Dillon, Elliott Sadler, Brad Keselowski and Brennan Poole. Poole edged out Brandon Jones for 10th following a spirited battle on the last lap.
Suarez maintains his points lead over by eight points over Elliott Sadler. Suarez and the rest of the Gibbs gang head into Auto Club Speedway next week hoping to continue their dominant ways.
