Kyle Busch seems to know his way around a race track in a truck. He’s started in four truck races this season and has won in every entry.
He started on the pole and Busch won the Lucas Oil 200 at Dover International Speedway in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Friday night.
Matt Crafton gave Busch some good competition in the middle of the race. Prior to a caution that was brought out by a spin by Brennan Newberry, Busch came down pit road for service. He didn’t get the service as his crew chief pushed him on through as the yellow flag was displayed. He would get service when the other trucks came down pit road for tires and fuel. After that round of pit stops on lap 76, Matt Crafton took the lead.
Busch would restart eighth on lap 82 and would be fourth by lap 83. Crafton had the lead and Ryan Blaney had his No. 29 Ford in the second position holding off Busch. Blaney would keep that spot and Busch would keep his spot until lap 109. Busch would eventually get around Blaney and then retake the lead on lap 121. There he will stay for the remainder of the race.
After having a string of races with frustrating finishes, Ryan Blaney returned to great form with a second place finish. He fought hard to be in that spot as he had to tighten loose lugnuts on the left rear wheel just prior to a restart on a round of pit stops on lap 136. Blaney restarted in the seventh position and would stall out in the top six until a caution came out for Matt Crafton which moved him up to the fifth spot. Blaney quickly picked up two spots to third and on lap 184 he snuck by Johnny Sauter for second place and set his sights on the lead. While he raced every lap as hard as he could, Blaney would have to settle for second. It was Blaney’s third top-10 finish in 2014.
“I hate finishing second,” Blaney tweeted after the race. He would later tweet that he’s happy to “get a finish we deserve.”
Matt Crafton had such a good race going but cut a right front tire on lap 156 and hit the outside wall with conviction. The monster mile would claim another truck on the night. He fought hard with Kyle Busch and led a total of 46 laps. He was running second at the time of the accident. The only injury Crafton sustained was defeat.
It was another rough night for Darrell “Bubba” Wallace, Jr. He had a flat right front tire on lap 44 and had to come down pit road under a green flag to change tires. He lost three laps. He had charged up to sixth place from starting 15th just before the tire issue. He finished 16th.
Johnny Sauter had a solid day. He had been running in the top five for most of the race and settled in third after losing the second spot to Blaney in the closing laps.
Ben Kennedy was the highest finishing rookie and Timothy Peters leads the point standings by one point over Matt Crafton.
The top ten: Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Johnny Sauter, Brandon Jones, Joey Coulter, John H. Nemechek, Ben Kennedy, Tyler Reddick, German Quiroga, and Timothy Peters.
The next NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race will be on Friday, June 6 at 9 p.m. ET for the WinStar World Casino and Resort 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.
