Kyle Busch returned to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for the first time since Bristol Motor Speedway in March and earned his second win of the season at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday (April 12) night.
The win was a dominant one for Busch, who swept the stages and led 112 laps en route to the win. He also won the second race of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“Corey [Heim] kept us honest right there,” Busch told FOX Sports. “He started to find that top over there and to get some momentum over there.”
Busch held off Heim for the win by less than a truck length.
“It just seemed like a big track position game at the end there,” Heim told FOX Sports. “Of course, you get really big runs down the straightaways, but once you get to the corner, it’s really hard to stay behind somebody and keep momentum.
“[Busch]’s just too good, you know? He just does a really good job.”
Pole-sitter Nick Sanchez finished third followed by Christian Eckes in fourth. Zane Smith rounded out the top five.
Daniel Dye finished a career-best sixth. Taylor and Tanner Gray finished seventh and eighth, while Stefan Parsons and Ty Majeski finished ninth and 10th, respectively.
The start of the race wasn’t green for long, as on lap 2, Thad Moffitt had a weird steering issue and turned dead left across the field, clipping Kris Wright on his way down. Wright didn’t suffer much damage, if any.
The same could not be said for Tyler Ankrum, who had to start in the rear due to a practice crash. He slammed directly into Moffitt and sent Moffitt back up the track into Memphis Villarreal, damaging all three trucks heavily and taking them all out of the race.
Shortly after the restart, the second caution of the night came out on lap 12 when Rajah Caruth spun in turn 2. Caruth also had to start in the rear after changing a tire before the race.
The rest of stage one went clean and green, with Busch taking the stage win. Stage two was more of the same; it ran green the whole way and Busch once again took home the stage win.
Stage three remained relatively unchanged and stayed green all the way until green flag pit stops started with around 45 laps to go. The cycle was nearly complete, with only Smith and Lawless Alan left to make their stops, when Layne Riggs lost it in turn 2 and made contact with the wall.
That brought out a caution with 37 laps to go. Riggs had been running in the top 10 all night but had to pit about 10 laps before the green flag pit cycle began with a tire problem.
As the caution trapped several trucks at least one lap down, only 16 trucks restarted on the lead lap. The race finally restarted with 26 laps to go. However, just four laps later, Wright slipped up into Mason Massey and spun out, collecting Stewart Friesen in the process. While Friesen didn’t suffer much damage, Wright’s No. 1 was severely torn up.
The field didn’t make it a lap after the restart when another big accident occurred in turn 3. Dean Thompson and Grant Enfinger collided, with the latter slamming the outside wall. Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter also got a piece but nothing too major. Enfinger was the only retiree from the accident.
Right before the caution, Eckes got around Busch for the lead, just narrowly. The final restart with 10 laps to go saw Eckes get a big jump over Busch, but Busch wrestled the lead back with eight laps to go and never looked back.
SpeedyCash.com 250 Race Results
The Truck Series will have two weeks off before its next race at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, May 4, at 8 p.m. ET.
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 serves as an at-track reporter, among many other duties he takes on for the site. 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.