It took 20 years, but Kurt Busch finally conquered the track where he grew up at.
The Las Vegas, Nevada native became the first driver to clinch a spot in the third round of the NASCAR Playoffs – meaning he’ll be one of the final eight drivers eligible to win the big trophy at the end of the season.
“This is what kids dream of when they grow up racing, you dream of winning at your home town track,” Busch said. “For two decades it’s kicked my butt and tonight with this Monster Energy Chevy, I’m in awe.”
The win comes as a surprise to those that haven’t kept up with Busch’s season, which has seen an amount of quiet success as the year has rolled on.
He’s gone everywhere with the ride since being let go from Stewart-Haas Racing to managing wins in each of the last two seasons.
It looked like he’d have a shot to get another this year, but Busch just needed that break.
“I knew the race would come to us,” Busch said. “We needed to get to night-fall and one of those quirky [crew chief] Matt McCall pit sequences finally unfolded and we got lucky. You have to be lucky and you have to be lucky in any race, but we did it tonight with teamwork, pulling through and not giving up.”
His team didn’t give up, and they got to see their strategy come to fruition in the final 50 laps.
Chase Elliott had the fastest car on the track through the first two stages of the race, but during a green flag pit stop cycle, a timely caution – for Busch – gave the No. 1 the lead.
For a brief amount of time, Busch was the only playoff driver on the lead lap at all.
Now, the situation amended itself to a point where the faster drivers worked their way up the field, but it ended up hurting the guys that were on the top of the leaderboard.
Elliott wound up in 22nd by the end of the race. Austin Dillon took a top 10 run into being the worst finishing playoff driver in the field.
Of course, along with that comes Busch taking up one of the eight remaining playoff spots.
All things considered, going into Talladega this week could shake things up quite a bit more, so look for things to get hectic as the rest of the playoffs roll on.
| 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Grid | |||||
| With 2 Second Round Races Remaining | |||||
| Position | Driver | Points | PLF Pts. | Cutoff | |
| 1 | Kurt Busch | x | 6 | x | |
| 2 | Kevin Harvick | 3104 | 67 | +61 | |
| 3 | Denny Hamlin | 3101 | 49 | +58 | |
| 4 | Brad Keselowski | 3059 | 35 | +16 | |
| 5 | Martin Truex Jr. | 3058 | 16 | +15 | |
| 6 | Joey Logano | 3054 | 22 | +11 | |
| 7 | Chase Elliott | 3053 | 22 | +10 | |
| 8 | Alex Bowman | 3052 | 9 | +9 | |
| Playoff Cutoff | |||||
| 9 | Kyle Busch | 3043 | 4 | -9 | |
| 10 | Clint Bowyer | 3032 | 4 | -20 | |
| 11 | Aric Almirola | 3025 | 5 | -27 | |
| 12 | Austin Dillon | 3020 | 5 | -32 | |
NASCAR Cup Series Las Vegas Results
1. Kurt Busch (P)
2. Matt DiBenedetto
3. Denny Hamlin (P)
4. Martin Truex Jr. (P)
5. Alex Bowman (P)
6. Kyle Busch (P)
7. Ryan Blaney
8. Erik Jones
9. Chris Buescher
10. Kevin Harvick (P)
11. Jimmie Johnson
12. Clint Bowyer (P)
13. Brad Keselowski (P)
14. Joey Logano (P)
15. Ryan Newman
16. Cole Custer
17. Aric Almirola (P)
18. Matt Kenseth
19. Ryan Preece
20. John Hunter Nemechek
21. Michael McDowell
22. Chase Elliott (P)
23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
24. Christopher Bell
25. William Byron
26. Ty Dillon
27. Corey Lajoie
28. Bubba Wallace
29. Daniel Suarez
30. Brennan Poole
31. Gray Gaulding
32. Austin Dillon (P)
33. JJ Yeley
34. Quin Houff
35. Joey Gase
36. Josh Bilicki
37. Timmy Hill
38. Tyler Reddick
39. Chad Finchum
