Kyle Busch stretches fuel to claim 69th NASCAR Truck win at Dover

Kyle Busch found himself in a familiar spot in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on Friday, taking the checkered flag for the 69th time in his career.

He now has five Truck Series wins at Dover, beating Ty Majeski and Layne Riggs in the end. Kaden Honeycutt finished fourth, Christopher Bell fifth, Brandon Jones sixth, Christian Eckes seventh, Corey LaJoie eighth, Jake Garcia, and Justin Haley tenth.

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Asked about why this win is important, Busch told NASCAR on FOX: “Because you never know when the last one is. I know that all too well, unfortunately, with the Cup stuff, but the Truck stuff right now is awesome, just to be part of Spire Motorsports … love coming to Dover, always one of my favorite places to race. Definitely some managing of the fuel and the tires (at the end). It was an interesting strategic battle.”

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Stage 1

Busch controlled the race from the start, as Honeycutt moved up into second, hoping to go back-to-back after his first career win at Watkins Glen.

Daniel Hemric went behind the wall early with a fuel pump issue, later returning to the race over 20 laps down. The first crash was for Dystany Spurlock, who crashed down the backstretch, ending her Truck Series debut.

This set up a one-lap dash to end the stage, with only two trucks staying out — Butcher and Queen. Off pit road, both Honeycutt and Rhodes got hit with speeding penalties, sending them to the back of the field.

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The restart was chaotic with lots of pushing and shoving as the field scrambled for whatever stage points they could get.

Busch got back to the lead, winning Stage 1 over Majeski, Butcher, Chastain, Hocevar, Ruggiero, Garcia, Bell, Riggs, and Enfinger. Unlike Butcher, the gamble did not pay off for Queen, who fell back to 12th after a run-in with Riggs.

Stage 2

Busch led the way at the start of the second stage with Chastain moving up to second.

Perez had to pit with a flat tire under green, and got into the outside wall. Elsewhere in the pack, Natalie Decker was black-flagged for not meeting minimum speed.

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Butcher also got into the wall and sustained damage, but made it into the pits under green.

Making his first NASCAR Truck start in several years, Clint Bowyer got into it with Luke Baldwin, and the two drivers traded some paint in the closing laps of the stage. They also had a close call in the first stage of the race.

Busch won Stage 2 over a rapidly closing Chastain, then Majeski, Ruggiero, Bell, Hocevar, Riggs, Jones, Honeycutt, and Jones.

Stage 3

Chastain and Majeski beat Busch off pit road as the field got ready for the final 100 laps of racing. Chastain held the lead over Busch on the restart, while Riggs moved up to third.

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Also on the restart, there was contact between Hocevar and Bowyer, but Bowyer managed to hang onto it. Soon after, Smith and Hocevar made contact in a heated battle, continuing an eventful day for the driver of the No. 77 Chevrolet. He had to pit with a flat tire soon after.

The next caution came right as the pit window opened, with Baldwin slamming the wall. He got loose under Queen and then spun into the inside wall at the exit of Turn 4.

Chastain stayed out while most of the field pitted, taking their final set of tires. Only his teammate Parker Eatmon stayed out with him.

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Impressively, Chastain held the lead, and the next yellow flew for Mini Tyrrell spinning into the frontstretch wall. He was battling side-by-side with his teammate, Bowyer, as they both tried to pass Eatmon.

During the caution, Ruggiero pitted to repair damage from the previous restart, as he made contact with Eatmon.

Bowyer got a tire rub on the restart after contact from C. Smith, but carried on.

Busch finally took the lead from Chastain with 57 laps to go. Hocevar had to make another unscheduled pit stop with 40 laps to go.

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Chastain finally pitted with just over 20 laps to go as Niece Motorsports’ high-risk strategy did not pay off, putting him multiple laps down. He only managed to get back to 18th by the time the checkered flag flew.

Bowyer’s NASCAR return ended with around 15 laps to go, as he came down pit road and shut the truck off with a loose wheel.

At the very end, some trucks began to run out, including William Sawalich and Ben Rhodes. However, the leaders made it without issue, and Busch had plenty of fuel to do some post-race burnouts.

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Dover NASCAR Truck Results

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