Kyle Busch dominates in Truck Series win at Las Vegas

Busch wasted no time taking the lead in Friday night’s Strat 200 and dominated the race, leading seven times for 108 of 134 laps on his way to the victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Busch has now won the last seven Truck races he’s entered dating back to the 2018 season. The win was the 57th of his career.

The win is Busch’s second of the weekend, he also won a Super Late Model race Thursday night at the Bullring. Busch is not entered in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race.

“I don’t know why but we just couldn’t fire off on the restarts. We just didn’t have any speed,” Busch said. “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 night for Danny Stockman (crew chief) 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.”

Johnny Sauter was second, Austin Hill third, Matt Crafton fourth and Ben Rhodes rounded out the top-five.

On Lap 89, Raphael Lessard got loose and eventually hit the wall, collecting Grant Enfinger in the process to bring out the caution.

All of the lead-lap trucks elected to pit with Busch the first off pit road and still in the lead when the race returned to green on Lap 96. He was followed by Sauter and Sheldon Creed.

With 30 to go, Busch continued to lead followed by Sauter and Hill.

With just 10 laps remaining in the race, Busch’s lead had grown to more than 5 seconds over Sauter. Hill was in third

Stage 2

Busch completed a sweep of the first two stages, once again easily holding off his teammate Christian Eckes to claim the Stage 2 victory.

Ross Chastain was third, Enfinger fourth and Crafton completed the top-five.

Following the break between Stages 1 and 2, all of the lead-lap trucks elected to pit with Eckes coming off first and taking the lead. On the restart on Lap 38, Eckes was followed by Busch and Hill.

On Lap 45, Busch went to the outside of Eckes to reclaim the lead.

With 10 laps remaining in the stage, Busch had built up a 1.5-second lead over Eckes. Chastain was third, Brett Moffitt fourth and Enfinger fifth.

Stage 1

Busch dominated much of the first stage and easily held off Eckes for the Stage 1 win.

Sauter was third, Tyler Ankrum fourth and Hill completed the top-five.

“I feel like the back is just light. Light on weight. Nose heavy, ass up, just light,” Busch described his truck over his team radio.

Sauter, who started on the pole, led the first 11 laps until Busch ran him down and took over the top spot on Lap 12.

With five laps remaining in the stage, Busch’s lead had grown to over three seconds.

Crafton had to start the race from the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments following qualifying.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Laps Led
1	51	Kyle Busch		Toyota	134	-	108
2	13	Johnny Sauter		Ford	134	5.958	7
3	16	Austin Hill		Toyota	134	9.255
4	88	Matt Crafton		Ford	134	9.437
5	99	Ben Rhodes		Ford	134	10.482
6	21	Zane Smith		Chevrolet	134	11.407
7	38	Todd Gilliland		Chevrolet	134	11.544
8	15	Tanner Gray		Toyota	134	15.553
9	52	Stewart Friesen		Toyota	134	16.008
10	2	Sheldon Creed		Chevrolet	134	22.349	8
11	26	Tyler Ankrum		Chevrolet	134	22.689
12	11	Spencer Davis		Toyota	134	22.875
13	45	Ty Majeski		Chevrolet	134	23.180
14	40	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	134	27.236
15	30	Brennan Poole		Toyota	134	29.319
16	23	Brett Moffitt		Chevrolet	134	30.050
17	22	Austin Wayne Self		Chevrolet	134	30.415
18	9	Codie Rohrbaugh		Chevrolet	134	30.898
19	02	Tate Fogleman		Chevrolet	133	1 lap
20	3	Jordan Anderson		Chevrolet	132	2 laps	1
21	44	Natalie Decker		Chevrolet	132	2 laps
22	19	Derek Kraus		Toyota	131	3 laps
23	18	Christian Eckes		Toyota	130	4 laps	10
24	00	Angela Ruch		Chevrolet	130	4 laps
25	20	Spencer Boyd		Chevrolet	129	5 laps
26	04	Cory Roper		Ford	128	6 laps
27	33	Josh Reaume		Chevrolet	126	8 laps
28	56	Timmy Hill		Chevrolet	113	21 laps
29	83	Stefan Parsons		Chevrolet	112	22 laps
30	4	Raphael Lessard		Toyota	90	44 laps
31	98	Grant Enfinger		Ford	89	45 laps
32	34	Josh Bilicki		Toyota	3	131 laps