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Busch’s victory in O’Reilly 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway ended Johnny Benson’s quest to set a Craftsman Truck Series record for consecutive wins. Benson, the series points leader, had won the past three races.
The win was the 17th for Busch in NASCAR’s three national series this season. He has eight Sprint Cup wins and six Nationwide Series wins to go with his three in Trucks.
Busch held off Todd Bodine in a green-white-checkered overtime in a race slowed by a track record 12 cautions. Red Bull Racing development driver Scott Speed finished third, Benson was fourth and Rick Crawford completed the top five.
“It’s fun to win anywhere, but to be able to do it in all three series at various race tracks, it means a lot,” Busch said.
“Kyle is a hell of a shoe,” Bodine said. “He’s an incredibly talented race car driver.”
“I just got loose and lost it,” said Johnson, who was making his Truck Series debut, “I saved it three times before it looped. I ran out of talent in the end.”
The scheduled 200-lap race was extended three laps after Erik Darnell spun off of Turn 2 on Lap 199 to bring out the last of a record 12 cautions and set up a green-white-checkered finish. Busch’s No. 51 Toyota struggled with vapor locking under previous restarts, but his final and most important restart on Lap 201 was flawless and he easily beat Todd Bodine
“The last restart, it did it coming to the white [flag]. Fortunately we were able to get it there,” Busch said of the vapor locking issues.
The night also had a red flag that stopped the race for 10 minutes, 30 seconds. On Lap 177, Shelby Howard and Bryan Silas got together in Turn 2, blocking the track. Kevin Harvick Inc. teammates Jack Sprague and Ron Hornaday were collected when Sprague got into the rear of Hornaday as both cars tried to avoid the accident.
