Kyle Busch survived five restarts in the last 40 laps and held off Denny Hamlin in NASCAR overtime to win Sunday’s (June 4) NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
This marks the 25th track that Busch has won at in the Cup Series. It’s his third win of the season and 63rd career Cup win.
“That was pretty awesome, man.” Busch told FOX Sports. “To sit on the pole, to lead a lot of laps, have my guys do such a great job today was pretty phenomenal for us.”
Hamlin finished second, Joey Logano in third, Kyle Larson in fourth and Martin Turex Jr. rounded out the top five.
World Wide Technology Raceway Race Results
Ryan Blaney led laps early and finished sixth. Daniel Suarez took seventh, William Byron was eight, Michael McDowell finished ninth and Kevin Harvick took the final spot in the top 10.
Busch and Coca-Cola 600 winner Blaney led the field to the green flag with Blaney leading the first lap before Busch retook the lead. On lap 2, Tyler Reddick made contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and spun in turn 1, bringing out the caution.
Lightning in the area turned that caution into a red flag on lap 5 that lasted for one hour and 45 minutes.
Busch held onto the lead on the restart on lap 9 and then led the rest of the way to score the stage 1 win. He won the race off of pit road and led the field to the restart on lap 52.
McDowell brought out the third caution in turn 1 after contact with Ross Chastain. McDowell suffered some damage to the left rear but continued on.
Following the restart, on lap 61, Blaney passed Busch to take the lead.
On lap 90, Carson Hocevar, making his Cup debut filling in for Corey LaJoie (who was filling in for the suspended Chase Elliott), blew a brake rotor entering turn 1 and hit the wall bringing out the fourth caution.
Hocevar was credited with 36th, last place, while the Cinderella story of the week, LaJoie finished 21st.
After pit stops, Blaney kept the lead off after a two-tire stop. He held onto his track position and held off a charging Busch to win stage 2.
The leaders came to pit road during the caution, with Larson winning the race off with two tires while Hamlin came out second with four tires. On lap 184, after the restart, Busch made the pass on the outside of Hamlin and Larson to take the lead.
The seventh caution came out on lap 195 when Noah Gragson spun in turn 1 after a broken brake rotor.
This brought out the red flag for the second time Sunday for NASCAR to clean the track. After nearly a 10-minute red flag, the race resumed and some of the field came to pit road for tires and fuel.
On lap 204, Christopher Bell brought out the eighth caution with a spin in turn 1. After the restart, Busch continued to hold the lead after a battle with Larson.
On lap 218, contact between Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon and Stenhouse brought out the 10th caution of the race. Following that incident, NASCAR brought out the red flag for the third time of the day to repair the turn 1 wall.
Bubba Wallace became the fourth car to break a brake rotor on Sunday, slamming the wall to bring out the caution for the 11th and final time on lap 235.
This put the race into NASCAR overtime, where Busch held off a late charge from Hamlin to score the win.
Next week, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Sonoma Raceway for 110 laps of road course racing. That race will start on Sunday, June 11, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
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LaJoie finishes 21st, beating bubba.
Same team, I know how good Kyle is, but man this is showing just how bad Dillon is.
Was it just me or did the network show kids in the crowd more than some cars in the product?
If you aren’t aware of Mikey’s crash at Bristol here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzxcuV5rmA4
Where was all the booing when Busch won the race ? Earnhardt’s podcast explains it best. During the driver intro Edwards sitting next to him, question why they won’t booing Busch. Earnhardt tolled him “he went to RCR and all is forgiven”.