bigbadbrother
04-10-2016, 07:33 AM
Joe Menzer
Kyle Busch swept to the lead with 33 laps to go after a massive 13-car wreck shook up the field in Saturday night's Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
And once Busch was in the lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, no one was going to catch him. Busch thus completed a weekend sweep of NASCAR races for the second weekend in a row, having also won Friday night's XFINITY Series race at the 1.5-mile track.
One week earlier, when the XFINITY Series did not race, Busch won both the Cup race and the Camping World Truck Series race at the Martinsville Speedway short track.
Asked afterward what propelled him to victory in a car that was not handling to his liking early in the race, Busch told FOX Sports: "Just communication, just keeping talking about it and just keep making changes to our racecar to try to make it better.
"But this Interstate Batteries Toyota was really fast. It had really good speed, especially on entry into the corner. We really had to work on the exit out of the corner, but my guys did a great job. (Crew chief) Adam (Stevens) made some great adjustments all night long, and I actually think the race track kept coming to us as the night progressed."
It was an eventful night that included the huge wreck that involved 13 cars with just 40 laps to go and Martin Truex Jr. in the lead. The field wadded up coming out of Turn 2 after Austin Dillon checked up in front of Jimmie Johnson, who had nowhere to go and tagged him.
That set off a chain reaction crash that involved a total of 13 cars -- including all three Richard Childress Racing Chevrolets, Brian Vickers, Matt Kenseth, Brian Scott, Clint Bowyer and several other cars.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s night heated up in a hurry when he pitted near the Lap 180 mark of the 334-lap race.The pit stop began normally enough -- but when Earnhardt's crew changed the left-rear tire, sparks flew from a lug nut and ignited fuel that had spilled on the ground, briefly creating a pit fire.
Earnhardt pulled out of the pits with the back of his car on fire, but the flames quickly burned out, as they did on pit road. He then rejoined the race in the top five and went on the finish second.
Joey Logano finished third, Jimmie Johnson was fourth and Sprint Cup rookie Chase Elliott rounded out the top five.
Earnhardt, meanwhile, was far from the only one to encounter pit-road drama on the night -- and he was able to recover far better than most.
The No. 19 Toyota of pole-sitter Carl Edwards was the fastest car through much of the first half of the race, leading 124 of the first 223 laps.
But Edwards' night quickly turned sour when his pit crew failed to tighten the lug nights on his right-front tire during a stop, forcing him to come back in under green for another subsequent unscheduled -- and costly -- stop on Lap 225.
He went a lap down in the process and Edwards' promising chances for his first victory of the season disappeared in an instant, although he kept on grinding the rest of the night and worked his way all the way up to seventh by the finish.
Other potential contenders who were hurt by pit-road issues were Matt Kenseth (loose lug nut that required an extra stop) and Kevin Harvick (penalty for going too fast entering the pits, plus another for his pit crew losing control of a tire during a stop).
Truex led a race-high 141 laps, but could not hold off Busch on the final restart with 33 to go after he stayed out on older tires. He had to hold on to finish sixth.
http://a.fssta.com/content/dam/fsdigital/fscom/nascar/images/2016/04/09/040916-NASCAR-Texas-race-results.vadapt.664.high.59.jpg
Kyle Busch swept to the lead with 33 laps to go after a massive 13-car wreck shook up the field in Saturday night's Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
And once Busch was in the lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, no one was going to catch him. Busch thus completed a weekend sweep of NASCAR races for the second weekend in a row, having also won Friday night's XFINITY Series race at the 1.5-mile track.
One week earlier, when the XFINITY Series did not race, Busch won both the Cup race and the Camping World Truck Series race at the Martinsville Speedway short track.
Asked afterward what propelled him to victory in a car that was not handling to his liking early in the race, Busch told FOX Sports: "Just communication, just keeping talking about it and just keep making changes to our racecar to try to make it better.
"But this Interstate Batteries Toyota was really fast. It had really good speed, especially on entry into the corner. We really had to work on the exit out of the corner, but my guys did a great job. (Crew chief) Adam (Stevens) made some great adjustments all night long, and I actually think the race track kept coming to us as the night progressed."
It was an eventful night that included the huge wreck that involved 13 cars with just 40 laps to go and Martin Truex Jr. in the lead. The field wadded up coming out of Turn 2 after Austin Dillon checked up in front of Jimmie Johnson, who had nowhere to go and tagged him.
That set off a chain reaction crash that involved a total of 13 cars -- including all three Richard Childress Racing Chevrolets, Brian Vickers, Matt Kenseth, Brian Scott, Clint Bowyer and several other cars.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s night heated up in a hurry when he pitted near the Lap 180 mark of the 334-lap race.The pit stop began normally enough -- but when Earnhardt's crew changed the left-rear tire, sparks flew from a lug nut and ignited fuel that had spilled on the ground, briefly creating a pit fire.
Earnhardt pulled out of the pits with the back of his car on fire, but the flames quickly burned out, as they did on pit road. He then rejoined the race in the top five and went on the finish second.
Joey Logano finished third, Jimmie Johnson was fourth and Sprint Cup rookie Chase Elliott rounded out the top five.
Earnhardt, meanwhile, was far from the only one to encounter pit-road drama on the night -- and he was able to recover far better than most.
The No. 19 Toyota of pole-sitter Carl Edwards was the fastest car through much of the first half of the race, leading 124 of the first 223 laps.
But Edwards' night quickly turned sour when his pit crew failed to tighten the lug nights on his right-front tire during a stop, forcing him to come back in under green for another subsequent unscheduled -- and costly -- stop on Lap 225.
He went a lap down in the process and Edwards' promising chances for his first victory of the season disappeared in an instant, although he kept on grinding the rest of the night and worked his way all the way up to seventh by the finish.
Other potential contenders who were hurt by pit-road issues were Matt Kenseth (loose lug nut that required an extra stop) and Kevin Harvick (penalty for going too fast entering the pits, plus another for his pit crew losing control of a tire during a stop).
Truex led a race-high 141 laps, but could not hold off Busch on the final restart with 33 to go after he stayed out on older tires. He had to hold on to finish sixth.
http://a.fssta.com/content/dam/fsdigital/fscom/nascar/images/2016/04/09/040916-NASCAR-Texas-race-results.vadapt.664.high.59.jpg