Kyle Busch Win Vegas Truck Race in Dominating Performance

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LAS VEGAS, NV - RIS - Kyle Busch does what Kyle Busch does in truck races.  He dominated.  Johnny Sauter won the pole in a ThorSport Ford, butit was the Kyle Busch show. Busch ran away with the race at a large margin and the laps ran down. Put Busch in one of his own Kyle Busch Motorsports trucks, and he’s all but certain to win. That’s been the case for seven straight starts in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, counting Friday night’s victory in the Strat 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his home track.

Busch led seven times for 108 of the 134 laps in the 200-mile race. About the only difficulty he had was clearing Sheldon Creed on consecutive restarts in the final stage of the race. But five laps into a run, Busch was gone.

Busch started his seven-race streak in 2018 at Pocono. He won all five of his Gander Trucks starts last year and started 2020 with the hometown victory.

After the last restart on Lap 96, Busch pulled out to a lead of more than 7.8 seconds over polesitter and race runner-up Johnny Sauter. His winning margin over Sauter was 5.958 seconds. The victory was Busch’s 57th, extending his own record in the series, and his third straight at LVMS.

“I don’t know why but we just couldn’t fire off on the restarts,” Busch said. “We just didn’t have any speed. Once we got about 10 laps in, we started to check away from everybody. This Tundra was awesome – it really had great long-run speed.

“It was the first win for (crew chief) Danny Stockman at KBM, and it’s cool to have him on board. My guys worked their butts off. We unloaded and we really weren’t that close. We worked on it a lot with this new tire, and we got it a lot better.

“We kind of showed that with the (last) long run.”

Creed challenged Busch after the final restart, running side-by-side with the race winner and leading Laps 96 and 97, But Creed got loose under Busch’s No. 51 Toyota on Lap 98, surrendered the top spot and fell to 10th at the finish.

Sauter passed eventual eighth-place finisher Tanner Gray for second on Lap 101, and Austin Hill followed into third a lap later. Reigning series champion Matt Crafton came home fourth, with his ThorSport Racing teammate Ben Rhodes securing the fifth spot.

“We were way too loose at the start there,” Sauter said of his initial run from the pole. Adjustments during the first two pit stops helped matters, but not enough to gain equal footing with Busch.

Last week’s Daytona winner, Grant Enfinger, fell out early after Raphael Lessard’s Toyota broke loose in the bottom lane and carried both trucks into the outside wall. Lessard and Enfinger finished 30th and 31st, respectively.

Zane Smith, Todd Gilliland, Gray, Stewart Friesen and Creed completed the top 10.

Unofficial Results: 3rd Annual Strat 200, February 21, 2020, Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Fin, Str, Driver, Truck, Laps, St1, St2, Pts, Status, Tms Led, Laps Led
1) 3, Kyle Busch(i), No. 51 Cessna Toyota, 134, 1, 1, 0, Running, 7, 108
2) 1, Johnny Sauter, No. 13 Tenda Ford, 134, 3, 10, 44, Running, 2, 7
3) 6, Austin Hill, No. 16 United Rentals Toyota, 134, 5, , 40, Running, ,
4) 13, Matt Crafton, No. 88 Damp Rid/Menards Ford, 134, , 5, 39, Running, ,
5) 18, Ben Rhodes, No. 99 Carolina Nut Ford, 134, 9, 6, 39, Running, ,
6) 15, Zane Smith #, No. 21 The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas Chevrolet, 134, , , 31, Running, ,
7) 25, Todd Gilliland, No. 38 Speedco Ford, 134, , 9, 32, Running, ,
8) 14, Tanner Gray #, No. 15 Ford/Ford Performance Ford, 134, , , 29, Running, ,
9) 17, Stewart Friesen, No. 52 Halmar International Toyota, 134, , , 28, Running, ,
10) 2, Sheldon Creed, No. 2 Chevy.com/Trench Shoring Chevrolet, 134, 10, , 28, Running, 4, 8
11) 7, Tyler Ankrum, No. 26 Liuna! Chevrolet, 134, 4, , 33, Running, ,
12) 21, Spencer Davis #, No. 11 Hearn Industrial Toyota, 134, , , 25, Running, ,
13) 5, Ty Majeski #, No. 45 iRacing Chevrolet, 134, , , 24, Running, ,
14) 12, Ross Chastain(i), No. 40 Niece Chevrolet, 134, 7, 3, 0, Running, ,
15) 23, Brennan Poole(i), No. 30 RememberEveryoneDeployed.org Toyota, 134, , , 0, Running, ,
16) 10, Brett Moffitt, No. 23 Allegiant Chevrolet, 134, 8, 7, 28, Running, ,
17) 26, Austin Wayne Self, No. 22 JB Henderson Construction Chevrolet, 134, , , 20, Running, ,
18) 27, Codie Rohrbaugh, No. 9 GCM/CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet, 134, , , 19, Running, ,
19) 22, Tate Fogleman #, No. 02 Solid Rock Carriers Chevrolet, 133, , , 18, Running, ,
20) 20, Jordan Anderson, No. 3 Bommarito.com/Lucas Oil Chevrolet, 132, , , 17, Running, 1, 1
21) 29, Natalie Decker, No. 44 Remarkable Pillow Chevrolet, 132, , , 16, Running, ,
22) 16, Derek Kraus #, No. 19 ENEOS/NAPA FILTERS Toyota, 131, , , 15, Running, ,
23) 4, Christian Eckes #, No. 18 Safelite AutoGlass Toyota, 130, 2, 2, 32, Running, 2, 10
24) 31, Angela Ruch, No. 00 The Ruch Life Toyota, 130, , , 13, Running, ,
25) 30, Spencer Boyd, No. 20 American Pavement Specialists Chevrolet, 129, , , 12, Running, ,
26) 19, Cory Roper, No. 04 Car Quest Auto Parts Ford, 128, , , 11, Running, ,
27) 28, Josh Reaume, No. 33 Motorsports Safety Group Toyota, 126, , , 10, Running, ,
28) 11, Timmy Hill, No. 56 Hill Motorsports Chevrolet, 113, , , 9, Overheating, ,
29) 24, Stefan Parsons, No. 83 CMI Installers Chevrolet, 112, , , 8, Running, ,
30) 8, Raphael Lessard #, No. 4 Mobil 1 Toyota, 90, 6, 8, 15, Accident, ,
31) 9, Grant Enfinger, No. 98 Protect the Harvest/Curb Records Ford, 89, , 4, 13, Accident, ,
32) 32, Josh Bilicki(i), No. 34  Toyota, 3, , , 0, Handling, ,
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie

Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 39 Mins, 30 Secs
Race Length: 134 Laps, 201. Miles
Average Speed: 121.206 MPH
Margin of Victory: 5.958 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 51, 18, 13, 26, 16, 4, 40, 23, 99, 2
Stage 2 Top 10: 51, 18, 40, 98, 88, 99, 23, 4, 38, 13

Race Comments: Kyle Busch won the Strat 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his 57th Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series victory.

Prior to the start the following trucks dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for the reasons indicated: #04 (engine change), #00, 83, 88 (unapproved adjustments).

Failed to Qualify: (3) 49 Bayley Currey, 7 Korbin Forrister, 10 Jennifer Jo Cobb.

Caution Flags: 5 for 25 laps;
Laps: 3-5 (No. 19 Incident Turn 4 [None]);
32-38 (Stage 1 Conclusion [44]);
62-67 (Stage 2 Conclusion [02]);
75-78 (No. 18 Incident Turn 1 [02]);
91-95 (No. 4, 98 Incident Turn 2 [26]).

Lead Changes: 15 among 5 drivers;
J. Sauter 1-4;
S. Creed 5-8;
J. Sauter 9-11;
K. Busch(i) 12-33;
C. Eckes # 34-37;
K. Busch(i) 38;
C. Eckes # 39-44;
K. Busch(i) 45-78;
S. Creed 79;
K. Busch(i) 80;
S. Creed 81;
K. Busch(i) 82-91;
J. Anderson 92;
K. Busch(i) 93-95;
S. Creed 96-97;
K. Busch(i) 98-134.

Mobil 1 Driver of the Race:  Johnny Sauter, No. 13

   

Ron Fleshman with John Davison

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2020, Issue 2, Posted 1:55 AM, 02.22.2020