Kyle Busch Wins Truck Race at Sonoma

SONOMA, CA – RIS – Kyle Busch led 45 of 75 laps to win the HASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at the road course at Sonoma’s 1.99 track in wine country.  Busch held off Zane Smith in a frantic two-lap push to the finish at Sonoma  Raceway to earn his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory of the year; extending his record career total to 62 series victories and a streak of 10 consecutive years with at least one series win.

As the Camping World Truck Series’ all-time winningest driver, Busch has certainly prevailed under any number of race circumstances and that all came in handy Saturday afternoon. There were five leaders and 10 lead changes; a nearly 13-minute red flag in the closing laps and all the pit strategy you would expect in one of NASCAR’s premier road course events.

A hard crash involving Josh Bilicki, Stewart Friesen and Alex Bowman entering Turn 1 brought the race’s final caution at Lap 71, with Bilicki and Friesen incurring the heaviest hits. Their contact with the concrete barriers shifted the walls and necessitated the red flag setting up the final dash to the finish.

There were five NASCAR Cup Series drivers entered Saturday in the first Truck Series race at Sonoma since 1998.

“Just continuing to work on the truck and make it better,” Busch said of his team’s race-long work on the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota that has now won three times on the season, including last week with driver Corey Heim. “This Tundra TRD Pro was awesome today and really proud to drive it. We had a struggle at Charlotte a couple weeks ago but today was really good.”

Smith, who worked his way forward later in the race, finished only 1.176-seconds behind Busch and conceded his team had to work hard on the truck at every pit stop – ultimately finding the right adjustments to contend at the end.

“Man, I hate finishing second, especially to him,” Smith said, offering a smile and adding, “That last lap was the fastest lap of the race for me. I just wish I was a little closer so I would have had a shot at him.”

Ty Majeski, who won the opening stage, finished third, followed by Chastain and Busch’s teammate Chandler Smith.

Unofficial Results: Inaugural DoorDash 250, Sonoma Raceway

Fin, St, Driver, Truck, Laps, St1, St2, Tms Led, Laps Led, Playoff Pts, Pts, Status

1) 3, Kyle Busch(i), No. 51 yahoo! Toyota, 75, , 4, 45, , , 0, Running

2) 13, Zane Smith, No. 38 Michael Roberts Construction Ford, 75, 8, , , , , 38, Running

3) 4, Ty Majeski, No. 66 Cincinnati Toyota, 75, 1, 1, 4, 1, , 44, Running

4) 2, Ross Chastain(i), No. 41 Worldwide Express Chevrolet, 75, , 2, 19, , , 0, Running

5) 14, Chandler Smith, No. 18 Safelite AutoGlass Toyota, 75, , , , , 2, 41, Running

6) 1, Carson Hocevar, No. 42 Worldwide Express Chevrolet, 75, , , , , 5, 37, Running

7) 11, Parker Kligerman, No. 75 Food Country USA Chevrolet, 75, 5, , , , , 36, Running

8) 7, John Hunter Nemechek, No. 4 Persil Toyota, 75, 3, , , , , 37, Running

9) 5, Tyler Ankrum, No. 16 LiUNA! Toyota, 75, 2, , , , , 37, Running

10) 12, Matt DiBenedetto, No. 25 Rackley Roofing/WAR Shocks Chevrolet, 75, 6, , , , , 32, Running

11) 8, Grant Enfinger, No. 23 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet, 75, 4, 1, 1, , , 33, Running

12) 23, Harrison Burton(i), No. 17 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford, 75, , , , , , 0, Running

13) 27, Tanner Gray, No. 15 Ford Performance Ford, 75, , , , , , 24, Running

14) 20, Kaz Grala, No. 02 Cellar Scout Chevrolet, 75, , , , , 4, 30, Running

15) 25, Chase Purdy, No. 61 Bama Buggies Toyota, 75, , , , , 3, 30, Running

16) 28, Jack Wood #, No. 24 Cooks Collision Chevrolet, 75, , , , , , 21, Running

17) 16, Austin Dillon(i), No. 20 K&L Ready Mix Chevrolet, 75, 9, , , , 6, 0, Running

18) 17, Ben Rhodes, No. 99 Tenda Toyota, 75, , 2, 6, 1, 1, 29, Running

19) 22, Colby Howard, No. 91 Gates Hydraulics Chevrolet, 75, , , , , , 18, Running

20) 31, Todd Bodine, No. 62 Camping World Toyota, 75, , , , , 10, 18, Running

21) 29, Blaine Perkins #, No. 9 RACELINE Chevrolet, 75, , , , , , 16, Running

22) 32, Brad Perez, No. 43 I Set My Friends on Fire Toyota, 75, , , , , , 15, Running

23) 36, Spencer Boyd, No. 12 Grofully Chevrolet, 75, , , , , , 14, Running

24) 33, Dean Thompson #, No. 40 Worldwide Express Chevrolet, 75, , , , , 8, 16, Running

25) 19, Lawless Alan #, No. 45 AUTOChargit Chevrolet, 75, , , , , , 12, Running

26) 30, Kris Wright, No. 44 F.N.B. Corporation Chevrolet, 75, , , , , , 11, Running

27) 15, Derek Kraus, No. 19 NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet, 74, 7, , , , , 14, Running

28) 21, Timmy Hill, No. 56 SBC Contractors Toyota, 73, , , , , 7, 13, Running

29) 6, Alex Bowman(i), No. 7 HendrickCars.com/Ally Chevrolet, 71, , , , , , 0, Accident

30) 26, Josh Bilicki(i), No. 30 11/11 Veteran Project/UnBroken Toyota, 70, , , , , , 0, Accident

31) 10, Stewart Friesen, No. 52 Halmar International Toyota, 70, , , , , , 6, Accident

32) 9, Hailie Deegan, No. 1 Monster Energy Ford, 66, 10, , , , 9, 8, Accident

33) 34, Jade Buford(i), No. 33 Big Machine Spiked Coolers Toyota, 61, , , , , , 0, Transmission

34) 24, Matt Crafton, No. 88 Oregon/Menards Toyota, 54, , , , , , 3, Transmission

35) 18, Christian Eckes, No. 98 TSPORT/Curb Records Toyota, 26, , , , , , 2, Accident

36) 35, Stefan Parsons(i), No. 46 OpenFender.com Toyota, 9, , , , , , 0, Oil Cooler

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie