After Tyler Reddick’s pit crew managed to get a tire stuck right off of the edge of pit road, Sunday’s Buschy McBusch Race 400 at Kansas took a major shift.
Yes that’s a real race name – they had a contest – its fun, lets talk about what happened instead.
It lead to Kyle Busch taking his first win of the season in a race that Kyle Larson dominated. It’s been that type of year.
After Reddick’s crew lost the tire to the infield grass, NASCAR held steady rather than throwing the yellow flag to allow an official to retrieve the tire. That was because the series didn’t want Chris Buescher to benefit on long-pitting for an uncontrolled tire.
Buescher stayed out for a number of laps before coming into complete his stop. Once he did, NASCAR threw the yellow.
Prior to it, Larson was blistering away, his lead up to multiple seconds and growing over Denny Hamlin – who ran in second. Upon restarting, that changed.
Hamlin grabbed the lead early in the run and was looking to hold off Larson. Five laps later he caught a flat tire and put it into the wall. His day ended early.
The field restarted again, it saw a yellow for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with 19 laps to go.
It split six drivers that stayed out on the track and chose to not pit with a plethora that came down to take four tires on pit road.
It would have made more of a difference, but they saw another yellow for a Christopher Bell spin split up the last 19 laps.
NASCAR chose to restart on a green-white checkered, two-lap shootout.
It’s hard to blame them for that. After all, the restarts all day at Kansas had been entertaining for fans. Although, in his own right, Larson wasn’t happy. He said the track was clear and wanted more laps under the green flag.
Instead, though, they restarted with a pair of laps to go.
Busch took the pace as Ryan Blaney nearly spun with Larson on his tail. It gave the 18 car a cushion of air behind him and his immediate competitors, and Busch drove the car home at Kansas for the second day in a row.
Busch becomes the 10th different winner NASCAR has seen this season in 11 races of action. That 16-driver playoff grid is getting real squeezed.
Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski rounded out the podium in front of Matt DiBenedetto – who has now recorded three straight top 10 finishes and seven straight top 15’s.
Harvick, DiBenedetto and Chase Elliott all finished in the top five and are still without a win this season.
Martin Truex Jr. took sixth. Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher took seventh and eighth despite the inciting incident of the race. Former Texas winner Austin Dillon rounded out the top 10.
NASCAR will try and continue the momentum next week as all three of its top tours head to Darlington for the annual NASCAR throwback weekend.
If it’s anything like last year’s races at the track too tough to tame, we’re in or a real treat.
NASCAR Cup Series Results
Buschy McBusch Race 400
1. Kyle Busch
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Brad Keselowski
4. Matt DiBenedetto
5. Chase Elliott
6. Martin Truex Jr
7. Tyler Reddick
8. Chris Buescher
9. William Byron
10. Austin Dillon
11. Daniel Suarez
12. Denny Hamlin
13. Michael McDowell
14. Ross Chastain
15. Kurt Busch
16. Ryan Newman
17. Joey Logano
18. Alex Bowman
19. Kyle Larson
20. Chase Briscoe
21. Ryan Blaney
22. Austin Cindric
23. Anthony Alfredo
24. Cole Custer
25. Erik Jones
26. Bubba Wallace
27. Corey LaJoie
28. Christopher Bell
29. Aric Almirola
30. Justin Haley
31. BJ McLeod
32. Ryan Preece
33. Garrett Smithley
34. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
35. Joey Gase
36. Cody Ware
37. Quin Houff
38. Matt Mills
39. Josh Bilicki
2021 NASCAR Cup Series Winners
Daytona | Michael McDowell
Daytona Road Course | Christopher Bell
Homestead | William Byron
Las Vegas | Kyle Larson
Phoenix | Martin Truex Jr.
Atlanta | Ryan Blaney
Bristol Dirt | Joey Logano
Martinsville | Martin Truex Jr. (2)
Richmond | Alex Bowman
Talladega | Brad Keselowski
Kansas | Kyle Busch
