Kyle Busch Wins Heads Up Georgia 250, First Atlanta Start Since 2014

Kyle Busch’s first race at Atlanta Motor Speedway since 2014 ended much like his other starts in recent months – in victory lane.

Busch led a race-high 119 of the race’s 163 circuits to take a dominant triumph in Saturday’s Heads Up Georgia 250 at AMS, Busch’s first NASCAR XFINITY Series start of the season.

Busch, the defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, missed last season’s trip to Atlanta as he recovered from injuries sustained in the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway. However, with former sponsor NOS Energy returning to the hood and Busch returning to the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, the Las Vegas native didn’t miss a beat.

Kyle Larson made the most of the race’s final restart to rise to second for HScott Motorsports with Chip Ganassi Racing, finishing just .466 seconds behind Busch.

Erik Jones, Busch’s teammate, overcame a penalty on the opening green flag of the event to come home in third to lead the field of NXS regulars. Paul Menard and Ty Dillon rounded out the top five.

Brad Keselowski finished sixth to lead the way for Ford after leading 28 laps earlier in the event. Daniel Suarez, Justin Allgaier, Elliott Sadler and Jeb Burton made up the back half the top 10. Burton’s 10th-place result gave Richard Petty Motorsports their first XFINITY Series top 10 since July 4, 2015 at Daytona.

The 250-mile race took just 112 minutes for the 40-car field. Despite loose, rough track conditions and a tight field battling on the 1.5-mile oval, the caution flag fell just five times for 21 laps.

The XFINITY Series will return on Saturday, Mar. 5 for the Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Aaron Bearden

Aaron Bearden is a Frontstretch alumnus who’s come back home as the site’s Short Track Editor. When he isn’t working with our grassroots writers, he can be found talking about racing on his Morning Warmup newsletter, pestering his wife/dog or convincing himself the Indiana Pacers can win an NBA title.