LAS VEGAS – Hoping to score his second victory of the weekend at his hometown track of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch’s attempt at a late race charge would go unanswered in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400.
The 2015 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion gave a heroic effort during the final run to the checkered flag, but his No. 18 M&Ms Carmel Toyota had nothing for the dominant Kevin Harvick.
Normally, a runner-up finish would be a result that Busch would be disappointed in. However, after the whooping that Harvick put on the field – sweeping the stages, leading a whopping 214 of the race’s 267 laps and leaving just nine cars on the lead lap, the 33-year-old was content.
“Second is fine if you get your butt beat as bad as we got our butt beat,” Busch said post-race. “We’ll take that finish. It was a win for the field as the 4 (Kevin Harvick) was a class of his own. Our guys did a great job.”
The Nevadan started the weekend with the hope of completing the first tripleheader weekend sweep at Las Vegas, matching two similar feats he completed at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2010 and 2017 respectively.
Friday night, Busch kept himself in contention through night one with a victory in the Stratosphere 200 but lost out on the sweep when he struggled with his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 Xfinity Series event.
Just like Saturday, the veteran didn’t have a dominant No. 18 Toyota in the third Cup race of the year, but he raised the bar when it counted most. Finishing ninth at the end of Stage 1, he rose to fifth by the end of Stage 2 – and used the final 107 laps for his run to the finish.
For several laps, Busch would make huge dents into his interval to Harvick, but as the laps ticked away, Harvick would slowly inch forward stalling his progress within three seconds of Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.
“Just needed to be closer to the car to see if I had a chance to race him (Kevin Harvick) through traffic,” Busch added. “We were just so far back, by the time he’d get through traffic, I’d get the traffic and I’d get held up and he’d drive away. We were kind of accordioning back and forth that last two runs of the race.”
With his 39th career Cup win on Sunday, Harvick has dominated the past two Cup Series races. And while many have wondered if his early season dominance might be a sign of things to come, Busch believes its still too early in the season to worry.
“It’s early, this is only race three,” he said. “We aren’t worried yet. Show me that race 26 through 36.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
