Kyle Busch used the bumper and held off a hungry field to win in his Camping World SRX Series debut at Pulaski County Motorsports Park.
Busch becomes the second driver to win in his debut this season, behind Denny Hamlin at Stafford Motor Speedway.
Clint Bowyer finished second, and Tony Stewart finished third to complete the podium.
Stewart started on pole and led the first 46 laps of the night. The first caution flag of the night, the SRX Fun Flag, came on lap 14 and bunched them all back up.
Stewart took off again on the lap 20 restart and held a steady half-second gap on Brad Keselowski until the second caution of the night, another Fun Flag, came out on lap 40.
Keselowski was able to put up more of a fight on the lap 46 restart and was able to take the lead from Stewart on lap 50. Behind them, Ryan Newman and Marco Andretti made contact and sent the latter way up the hill in turn 4.
As Keselowski continued to lead, Busch put the bumper to Stewart to take second. Just laps later, Busch tried to pull the same move on Keselowski for the lead but accidentally spun Keselowski out and brought the caution back out on lap 56.
Busch cleared to the lead on the restart, meanwhile Bowyer came flying through the field. He started way back in the field and by the time the fourth caution and third Fun Flag of the night came out on lap 74, he was running second behind Busch.
The caution came out immediately after the restart, when Josef Newgarden bumped Helio Castroneves off of turn 2, causing the latter to get so squirrelly he ran into Bobby Labonte and spun the 2000 NASCAR Cup Series champion around. In the stack up, Andretti also got turned around.
A massive accident on lap 90 brought out yet another caution, when Paul Tracy tried to clear himself in front of Newgarden and spun himself in front of the field, collecting Andretti, Ken Schrader and Hailie Deegan. Tracy and Schrader got the worst of the damage, with their cars heavily torn up.
“I’m not running another race with him. I’m done,” Schrader said of Tracy after watching the incident.
The final caution of the night came out for Andretti, but Busch still held off Bowyer and Stewart for the final three laps to take the victory.
Heat 1
Newgarden drew the pole to start the night and was quickly passed by Andretti. Despite a caution a little past halfway, Andretti ended up winning the heat. Keselowski made an attempt for the win, but Andretti blocked hard and allowed Busch to sneak underneath Keselowski for second.
Heat 2
The inverted order saw Bowyer start on the pole. He finished last in heat 1 after losing power with two laps to go. Newman started to his outside, and the two of them had a spirited battle for the entire 20 lap heat, with Bowyer getting the better of Newman.
SRX Main Event Results at Pulaski County:
- Kyle Busch
- Clint Bowyer
- Tony Stewart
- Brad Keselowski
- Ryan Newman
- Helio Castroneves
- Bobby Labonte
- Hailie Deegan
- Marco Andretti
- Paul Tracy
- Josef Newgarden
- Ken Schrader
The Camping World SRX Series will be back in action next Thursday, Aug. 3 at Berlin Raceway. Coverage begins at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and secondary short track writer. He also serves as an at-track reporter and assists with social media when he can. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight-choreographer-in-training in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.
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Congrats to Kyle. Good race, great series. Hope it grows!