Loudon, n.h.
Several drivers, leader Martin Truex Jr. included, were claimed by the accident. Kyle Busch wasn’t one of them. He somehow sailed through the chaos, emerging with the lead before a red flag halted the action.
It was the biggest threat of the day for Busch — and the last. The Joe Gibbs Racing star dominated the remainder of Sunday’s event, racing alone to victory in July temperatures at Loudon’s final September NASCAR Cup Series event.
“That was pretty intense. That was some Days of Thunder stuff over there,” Busch said from Victory Lane. “You couldn’t see anything. It was just a wall of smoke over there off of turn 2. … But all in all, just a great day for this (team). This thing was awesome.”
The winner wasn’t a surprise. How he won it was.
With 12 victories at NHMS in his NASCAR career, Busch has routinely been able to find his form at the tricky mile-long track. But he’s rarely looked as untouchable as he did on Sunday, leading 148 of the final 151 laps and burying runner-up Kyle Larson by 2.64 seconds at race’s end.
Matt Kenseth was third, followed by Brad Keselowski and Truex. Erik Jones, Clint Bowyer, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano rounded out the top 10.
“(Truex) was a little bit faster than us, for sure, the first segment of the race,” Busch said. “Anytime that you see someone else have trouble, you never can count on those opportunities. You just have to take advantage of them when they’re there.”
Busch entered as the favorite after earning the pole in qualifying, but he needed help after Truex took the lead from him in turn 4 on lap 40 and led all but one of the next 110 circuits, grabbing the first stage win, his 19th of the season, in the process.
The opening came when Austin Dillon and Kevin Harvick collided while fighting for position halfway through lap 150, with Kurt Busch slamming into the two to create a wreck that took up most of the track and gathered a collection of drivers, including Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Truex.
Somehow, some way, Busch was spared. He missed contact with the sliding cars by feet — if not inches — and was the first across the line to finish the lap, giving him the second stage victory and putting him in front for the planned midway caution.
It was a lucky break, and no one knew it more than the man behind the wheel.
“It was a close call,” Busch said. “The cloud of smoke was so large, you literally couldn’t see anything, and I think a couple of those guys in front of us just plowed right on in.
“That was certainly a defining moment of the race, I think, with the 78 (Truex) getting torn up a little bit and us being able to squeak through unscathed.”
There was little drama the rest of the way, though Truex had one gamble left. Last week’s winner at Chicagoland rolled the dice during a lap 265 pit stop, taking two new tires while the leaders took four and jumping from seventh to first in the process.
The success was short-lived, however. Truex’s lead lasted only three laps before the older tires gave way, and Busch led from lap 268 to the finish, grabbing a win that clinches a spot in the next round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
“I think the big thing for us is to just keep focusing on what we’ve been doing all year long,” he said. “Just keep trying to go out there, run hard, run smooth, and be good at what we do.”
Larson and Keselowski also clinched spots in the next round on points with their finishes. It was Larson’s eighth runner-up finish of the year, and his second at Loudon in as many races this season.
“Obviously, you want to win, and second is the first loser,” he said. “But second is also not bad, especially when you get to the playoffs.”
It was a different story for playoff contenders Harvick, Dillon and Kurt Busch, who saw their championship hopes take a hit with their roles in the race-altering wreck. Harvick’s and Busch’s races ended with the accident, resulting in 36th- and 37th-place finishes, respectively, and while Harvick held Dillon responsible for the crash, Dillon, who took 19th, wasn’t taking the blame.