Photo Credit: Justin McFarland
He was fastest in both practice sessions, he won the pole and dominated the race leading 62 of 63 laps. To say Kyle Busch was good this weekend is an understatement.
The Lilly Diabetes 250 win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was his 83rd career win, and seventh of Busch’s season.
Today’s race at Indianapolis also involved heat races for the fourth time of the season as it was XFINITY’s final Dash for Cash race of the year. Busch won the first heat race from the pole after leading all 20 laps. Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez and Elliott Sadler rounded out the top-five. Suarez and Sadler would advance to race for the $100,000 prize.
Erik Jones won the second heat race, and much like teammate Kyle Busch, he won from the pole and also led every lap of his heat. Kevin Harvick, Justin Allgaier, Paul Menard and Brennan Poole finished out the top-five drivers. Jones and Allgaier each advanced from the second heat to race for the money.
Despite leading nearly every lap, Busch had to survive two late race restarts on old tires, while most of the drivers behind him were on new tires. A caution with less than 10 laps to go for Busch’s teammate Erik Jones spinning after cutting down a tire allowed everyone the opportunity to pit for fresh rubber. Of the 11 lead lap drivers, all but Busch and Suarez opted to pit.
Busch and Suarez seemed like sitting ducks on the restart, and while Suarez fell back, Busch found himself holding off a hard charging Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick until a final caution came out. Ray Black, Jr. spun while battling for position back in the field, and was hit by Harrison Rhodes.
On the final restart with two laps to go, Busch chose the inside lane, which eventually prevailed as he held off 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick, and Kyle Larson for the win.
“The new tires for those guys were good for them, but not so good for us on the old tires,” Busch said in victory lane. “I just dug in deep, and gave it everything I had. I knew I had to get really good restarts in there. The second to last one I got a really good one, and then the last one, it was okay. I saw Harvick pull out, and he must’ve been blocking the guys behind him who had a run because he never got alongside me. I never felt him close enough that he was gonna get alongside.”
In only his fourth NASCAR XFINITY Series start of the year, two-time series champion Kevin Harvick battled to a runner-up finish.
“The first corner didn’t go exactly how I wanted it to,” Harvick said post-race. “Elliott (Sadler) was really pushing me, and I should’ve just went three-wide. I didn’t want to be all the way on the bottom, and have a bad angle off the corner because I really thought I could beat him the backstretch if I got off of (turn) two well.”
Paul Menard, 2011 Brickyard 400 winner, finished third followed by Kyle Larson and Justin Allgaier. Allgaier’s fifth-place finish was good enough to earn him XFINITY’s $100,000 Dash for Cash win.
Elliott Sadler, Daniel Suarez, Joey Logano, Ty Dillon and Brandon Jones were the remainder of the top-10 finishing drivers.
Erik Jones, who ran inside the top-three for most of the race, suffered two tire issues late in the race, which dropped him to 22nd on the finishing order.
With only eight races left before the Chase begins, Daniel Suarez finds himself holding the point lead by 14 points over JR Motorsports driver Elliott Sadler.
