Race report

NASCAR O'Reilly Texas

Kyle Busch holds off Tyler Reddick to take Texas Xfinity win

Kyle Busch is poised for yet another NASCAR triple-header weekend sweep.

Jim Utter

Edited: Mar 30, 2019, 8:33 PM

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Race Winner Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota Supra iK9

Busch jumped to a big lead on a restart with nine of 200 laps remaining and held off Tyler Reddick to win Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

The win is Busch’s third in four series starts and the 95th of his career.

Should he win Sunday’s Cup race at Texas, it will be the third time in Busch’s career he has swept wins in all three NASCAR national series during a weekend.

"Not taking any tires (on the final pit stop) was certainly a help. I was worried about the restart because I didn't think there was going to be enough grip," Busch said. "The car certainly had enough grip in it.

"This Toyota Supra was awesome today. It was really fast on the long run I could just never get people away from me on the front side of the run to get settled into my rhythm and be able to go. Every time I got to the outside, people would just drive by me on the bottom. Then when I'd get to the inside, somebody would bust it on the outside on me and make me loose.

"We were just all over the place today. Certainly a fast race car once I could get rolling. Christopher Bell ran a great race, he should have won this thing today."

Christopher Bell finished third, Chase Briscoe was fourth and Jeb Burton completed the top-five.

Reddick, Bell, Briscoe and Michal Annett qualified for the $100,000 Dash4Cash bonus available in next weekend’s race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

On Lap 125 while running sixth, Justin Allgaier spun into the frontstretch grass to bring out a caution.

“He didn’t give me any room and I was just so unstable,” Allgaier said over his radio. “Tell (Custer) he did a nice job clearing me.”

All of the lead-lap cars elected to pit with Reddick the first off pit road followed by Bell, Busch and Brandon Jones. The race returned to green on Lap 132.

Brandon Jones and Cole Custer wrecked on Lap 133 off Turn 2 to bring another caution. “Lost it under him,” Custer said on his radio.

Several cars elected to pit under the caution but Reddick remained on the track and in the lead when the race restarted with 61 laps to go.

Bell quickly got around Reddick and moved into the lead on the restart.

With 45 laps to go, Bell held a small advantage over Reddick with Burton not far behind in third.

With 25 laps remaining in the race, Bell maintained about a 1-second lead over Reddick with Busch running in third.

A caution was displayed on Lap 190 when Jeremy Clements ran out of fuel and came to a stop in the middle of pit road. Busch was the first off pit road and led the way with the restart with six laps to go, followed by Reddick, Bell, Kaz Grala and Briscoe.

Stage 2

Ryan Sieg elected not to pit and held off Chastain in a 3-lap shootout to take the Stage 2 win.

Reddick was third, Busch was fourth and Bell completed the top-five.

Following the break between Stages 1 and 2, Busch was the first off pit road while Bell was penalized for speeding on pit road during his stop. Jones was also penalized for removing equipment from his pit box. Both had to restart the race from the rear of the field.

The race returned to green on Lap 54 with Busch in the lead followed by Reddick and Keselowski.

On Lap 58, Tyler Hill and David Star made contact and spun off Turn 4 to bring out a caution. The race returned to green on Lap 64 with Busch in the lead followed by Custer.

Brad Keselowski, running 11th at the time, spun off Turn 2 on Lap 65 after contact with Justin Haley. “I got ran over by three different cars,” Keselowski said. “Just part of it, we all got bottled up on restarts and a couple guys that don't know what they're doing ran us over.”

The race returned to green on Lap 71 with Busch leading the way followed by Noah Gragson, Custer and Allgaier.

Gragson powered around Busch on the restart to take the lead for the first time in the race.

With 10 laps to go in the stage, Ryan Black Jr. hit the wall off Turn 2 to bring out a caution. All of the lead-lap cars elected to pit with Busch the first off pit road followed by Gragson and Reddick.

Sieg remained on the track and led the way on the restart with three laps remaining in the stage.

Stage 1

Bell led every lap on his way to the Stage 1 victory over Busch – his fourth stage victory of the season.

Allgaier was third, Custer fourth and Jones completed the top-five.

Bell started on the pole but before the race was a lap old, Clements got loose and went spinning through the frontstretch grass to bring out a caution. The race returned to green on Lap 6.

With 30 laps remaining in Stage 1, Bell maintained a small advantage over Allgaier, followed by Busch, Jones and Austin Cindric.

Bell moved out to a more than one-second lead over Allgaier with 15 laps to go in the stage followed by Busch, Jones and Cindric.

With six laps to go, Busch moved into the runner-up position behind Bell as Allgaier dropped to third and Custer moved into fourth.

Gray Gaulding, Timmy Hill, Josh Williams, Jeff Green and Ronnie Bassett Jr. all had to start the race from the rear of the field for missing the drivers meeting. Garrett Smithley and Tommy Joe Martins both had to start from the rear for unapproved adjustments.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Laps Led 1 18 United States Kyle Busch Toyota 200 - 33 2 2 Tyler Reddick Chevrolet 200 0.861 19 3 20 Christopher Bell Toyota 200 2.071 128 4 98 Chase Briscoe Ford 200 2.616 5 8 Jeb Burton Chevrolet 200 2.795 6 1 Michael Annett Chevrolet 200 2.930 7 11 Justin Haley Chevrolet 200 3.304 8 81 United States Jeffrey Earnhardt Toyota 200 3.591 9 23 John Hunter Nemechek Chevrolet 200 4.768 10 39 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet 200 4.995 8 11 22 Austin Cindric Ford 200 5.002 12 7 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet 200 5.083 13 9 Noah Gragson Chevrolet 200 5.650 13 14 36 United States Josh Williams Chevrolet 200 9.926 15 90 Ronnie Bassett Chevrolet 199 1 lap 16 4 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 199 1 lap 17 86 Brandon Brown Chevrolet 199 1 lap 18 21 Kaz Grala Chevrolet 198 2 laps 19 99 Tommy Joe Martins Toyota 198 2 laps 20 52 United States David Starr Chevrolet 198 2 laps 21 08 Gray Gaulding Chevrolet 198 2 laps 22 01 Stephen Leicht Chevrolet 198 2 laps 23 42 Chad Finchum Toyota 197 3 laps 24 35 Joey Gase Toyota 196 4 laps 25 78 Vinnie Miller Chevrolet 196 4 laps 26 51 United States Jeremy Clements Chevrolet 196 4 laps 27 5 Matt Mills Chevrolet 194 6 laps 28 66 Tyler Hill Toyota 191 9 laps 29 74 Mike Harmon Chevrolet 189 11 laps 30 93 Josh Bilicki Chevrolet 184 16 laps 31 Garrett Smithley Chevrolet 160 39 laps 32 15 United States B.J. McLeod Chevrolet 138 62 laps 33 19 Brandon Jones Toyota 133 66 laps 34 00 Cole Custer Ford 132 67 laps 35 07 Ray Black Jr. Chevrolet 79 120 laps 36 12 Brad Keselowski Ford 68 131 laps 37 13 Timmy Hill Toyota 20 179 laps 38 38 United States Jeff Green Chevrolet 16 183 laps

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