Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
It was the Kyle Busch show in Chicagoland Speedway on Friday night as Busch took his second win of the year.
The night wasn’t all easy for the 46-time series winner. Busch had to start from the eighth position after Spencer Gallagher won the pole.
Gallagher led the first eight laps of the race before surrendering the lead to Daniel Suarez. Suarez led a 43-lap chunk of the race, but when Busch got the lead on a round of pit stops, he stayed out in front for most of the event. Busch led 95 of 151 laps.
Busch endured a green-white-checkered finish, and nine cautions to take the win, while Daniel Hemric scored his best finish of the year in second. Hemric will enter the Chase seventh in the standings
Cameron Hayley would go on to finish third, but unfortunately for the Canadian, the finish wasn’t good enough to secure him a spot in this year’s Chase.
Chasers Christopher Bell and Johnny Sauter finished fourth and fifth.
Rounding out the top-10 were a pair of GMS Racing teammates Grant Enfinger and Spencer Gallagher along with Timothy Peters, Cole Custer and Tyler Reddick. Peters’ eighth-place finish was good enough to earn him the last Chase position on points.
Both Peters and Custer ran into several problems throughout the night, but would each rebound. Peters suffered two cut tires early in the race, while Custer was caught speeding on pit road once, was caught up in a wreck with Gallagher and Enfinger late and cut a tire down late in the race.
Four of the eight Chase contenders finished outside the top-10. John Hunter Nemechek wound up 14th, while Ben Kennedy, Matt Crafton and William Byron all exited the race with crash damage landing them all outside the top-25.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers will head to New Hampshire Motor Speedway next weekend where the Chase is set to begin.
