Kyle Busch Wins For Third Time In Atlanta

Kyle Busch celebrates winning two NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races in a row at Atlanta
Ronda Greer / NASCAR

Benefitting from an astute call from the pits, Kyle Busch held off Ron Hornaday Jr. on Friday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway to win the American Commercial Lines 200, the second straight victory for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points leader.

After a stoppage for rain lasting almost 10 minutes, Busch restarted in the lead with four laps remaining in the 130-lap event at the 1.54-mile speedway. Busch pulled away to win by 1.116 seconds over the defending series champion.

The win was Busch's eighth in the series, and it was his fifth straight truck series race with a finish of first or second.

Mike Skinner ran third, followed by Matt Crafton and Chad McCumbee. Jack Sprague, Ted Musgrave, Terry Cook, Todd Bodine and Jon Wood completed the top 10, as only the first nine trucks finished on the lead lap.

The call of the race came on lap 112, when crew chief Richie Wauters brought Busch into the pits for tires during the third caution of the race, after rain slowed the proceedings on lap 111. That forced Hornaday to come to the pits with the other leaders a lap later.

When the field restarted on lap 116, Busch was third but quickly dispatched Crafton and McCumbee through Turns 3 and 4.

"That baby was evil-loose — it was all over the place," Busch said of the handling of the No. 51 Toyota early in the race. "But we got it handling really well on that last pit stop, and from that point on, it was a rocket ship."

Wauters said the call to pit wasn't that difficult.

"It wasn't that tough when you've got Kyle," Wauters said. "We knew we had a better truck on new tires. The only way to win the race was to come in for tires."

Hornaday's No. 33 Chevrolet was dominant on long runs, but in a four-lap dash to the finish, he had to settle for the runner-up finish.

"I'll tell you in one word, 'Second stinks,'" Hornaday said. "I don't know how he (Busch) can drive that thing that far out of control. I knew if we had a short run, he was going to get me. But we'll take second. It was a good points day, but it's a shame — this thing was fast."

Busch continues as the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship leader by 72 points over Todd Bodine.

Results

FIN

ST CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS
1 3 51 Kyle Busch Toyota Miccosukee Resort & Gaming 190/5 130 Running
2 1 33 Ron Hornaday Chevrolet Camping World / RVs.com 180/10 130 Running
3 12 5 Mike Skinner Toyota Toyota Tundra 170/5 130 Running
4 15 88 Matt Crafton Chevrolet Energizer / Menards 160/0 130 Running
5 2 8 Chad McCumbee Chevrolet Malcolmson Construction 160/5 130 Running
6 5 2 Jack Sprague Chevrolet American Commercial Lines 155/5 130 Running
7 4 59 Ted Musgrave Toyota Team ASE / Harris Trucking 146/0 130 Running
8 6 60 Terry Cook Toyota wyler.com 142/0 130 Running
9 7 30 Todd Bodine Toyota Lumber Liquidators 138/0 130 Running
10 16 21 Jon Wood Ford The Barnhill Group 134/0 129 Running
11 19 14 Rick Crawford Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International 130/0 129 Running
12 14 99 Erik Darnell Ford Northern Tool + Equipment 132/5 129 Running
13 8 18 Dennis Setzer Dodge Melling Engine Parts 129/5 129 Running
14 11 9 Justin Marks * Toyota Crocs 121/0 129 Running
15 24 10 Brendan Gaughan Ford International Maxx Force Diesel 118/0 129 Running
16 17 22 Phillip McGilton * Toyota Three Wide Life 115/0 129 Running
17 20 16 Brian Scott * Chevrolet Shark Energy Drink / Albertson's Supermarket 112/0 129 Running
18 22 09 Travis Kvapil Ford Zaxby's 109/0 129 Running
19 10 4 Stacy Compton Dodge Landmark Dodge 106/0 129 Running
20 25 71 Donny Lia * Chevrolet TRG Motorsports 103/0 128 Running
21 21 11 David Starr Toyota Red Horse Racing 100/0 128 Running
22 23 7 Andy Lally * Chevrolet TRG Motorsports 97/0 128 Running
23 29 15 Marc Mitchell * Chevrolet Ergon Hyprene 94/0 128 Running
24 31 08 Jason White Dodge Gunbroker.com 91/0 128 Engine
25 26 40 Chad Chaffin Chevrolet Key Motorsports 88/0 128 Running
26 18 13 Shelby Howard Chevrolet ThorSport Racing 85/0 128 Running
27 28 46 Scott Speed Chevrolet Red Bull 82/0 127 Running
28 9 6 Colin Braun * Ford Con-way Freight 79/0 126 Running
29 27 20 Scott Lagasse Jr. Ford Nicholson Group 76/0 125 Running
30 13 23 Johnny Benson Toyota Toyota Certified Used Vehicles 73/0 110 Running
31 30 07 Shane Sieg Chevrolet ASI Limited 70/0 76 Running
32 32 0 Butch Miller Chevrolet ASI Limited 67/0 3 Overheating