SONOMA, Calif.—Kyle Busch gave everything he had in the final three laps of the Toyota/Save Mart 350, but it wasn’t enough to hold off Martin Truex Jr., who was nearly three seconds faster than the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet at the finish.
Still, after his second win of the season, Busch revealed his strategy moving forward—gain as many points as possible.
On Sunday, he came close to doing just that by scoring his second stage win of the season and finishing second.
“Not too bad of a day for the No. 8 team at Sonoma Raceway,” Busch said. “I just wish we had a little bit more. I tried hard to keep Martin Truex, Jr. honest. I felt like I could beat him a little on a lap, and then I would mess up and he would beat me by more on the next lap. We were trading a little bit, but he was able to pull away late.
“Overall, great job by all the RCR and ECR guys on this Camaro. I’m proud of the effort.”
Busch was running 15th when the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports team had a tire roll out of the pit on Lap 50 to draw the first caution. With just several laps on his tires, crew chief Randall Burnett left Busch on the track when the leaders pitted. Busch took the lead for the first time on Lap 52 and held on for the second stage win three laps later.
“We made a lot of changes,” Busch said. “We got a lucky break with the yellow with only three laps on tires. We were able to cycle to the front. Once we got up there, we could maintain pace with some of the good cars and had a good top-three speed race car.”
Truex held the lead at the time of the caution. He restarted eighth on Lap 54 and quickly passed the six cars ahead of him. On Lap 69, he passed Busch to regain the point. Both Truex and Busch pitted five laps later and cycled out to first and second on Lap 80.
Both the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and Busch’s Chevy pitted after polesitter Denny Hamlin triggered the second and final caution. Hamlin hit the inside of Turn 11, then spun coming to the start-finish line after breaking the toe link on his No. 11 Camry.
Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, and Ryan Blaney threw Hail Marys and remained on the track with Truex and Busch lining up fourth and fifth for the final restart. Two laps later, Truex was in the lead with Busch in tow for a final 14-lap run.
“Kyle and I have raced together long enough, have enough respect for one another to race hard but race clean,” Truex said. “I think we understand each other, know our limits. Honestly, I think in the last—I don’t know—17, 18 years we’ve maybe had two run-ins where it was like, ‘That was stupid, I was an idiot.’ I think one for each of us literally.
“We’ve had some great races. We finished 1-2 a lot of times. We’ve battled for the lead for wins a bunch. He’s great to race with. I’d race with him any day of the week for a win and feel like we could do it fair, we could do it hard and respectfully.”
On 11 different occasions—including Sunday at Sonoma—Truex and Busch have first and second.
“I was totally fine with him being at the front with me,” Truex said. “Obviously, I’m happy he didn’t get close because he would have been getting after it like he always does.”
Get after it, Busch did. Unfortunately, he overdrove Turn 10 on the penultimate lap and allowed Truex to sail away.
“I was just trying to push,” Busch said. “I gave it everything I had the last three laps just to see if I could get it close enough and I over-smoked Turn 10 there and got into the marbles. Lucky to stay on course, actually.”
Still, the closest car to Busch was Joey Logano, who was 4.457 seconds behind the No. 8 car in third at the finish. Entering the off-week, only four drivers have multiple wins—Busch and William Byron with three each and Truex and Kyle Larson with two victories.
“It’s nice to come out here with a second-place finish after a win last week,” Busch said. “This team is really stringing together some good runs, so I don’t know if I want an off week. It will be good to regroup, focus and set up for the last 18 races of the season, though.
“Overall, I’m just really proud of the guys on this team, the communication, and the way they are able to go to work, work through some of our issues and try to improve on what I need to be able to feel in a race car and pull out finishes like the one we had today. If we can keep doing those things, we will be a force for the championship.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
