Tracking the Trucks: It Might Only Be the Truck Series, But It’s Still Kyle Busch

In a Nutshell

Yes, it’s the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Yes, he still hasn’t won in the Cup Series since 2023. Yes, there are doubters on whether or not he’s still got it.

But even still, Kyle Busch is still Kyle Busch. Yes, he can still win.

Busch dominated the Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 22), leading the most laps and winning stage two. However he had to earn it, making a last-lap, last-turn pass on Stewart Friesen (looking to end his nearly three-year-long winless streak) to take home his 67th career Truck Series victory.

The margin of victory between Busch and Friesen was just 0.017 seconds.

The Top Truckers at Atlanta Motor Speedway

Winner, Stage 2 Winner, Most Laps Led (80 Of 135 laps): Kyle Busch
Polesitter: Connor Mosack
Stage 1 Winner: Jack Wood
Biggest Mover: Bayley Currey (started 30th, finished fourth — gained 26 spots)
Fastest Lap: Tanner Gray (30.227 seconds, 183.412 mph)
Rookie of the Race: Gio Ruggiero

Top Storylines of the Race

• Unlike the season opener at Daytona International Speedway, all drivers who qualified made the race, as only 32 trucks were entered this week. Of note, Bayley Currey, Justin Carroll and Keith McGee did not take laps in qualifying. Currey had a fuel pump issue that prevented him from taking a lap.
• Following a second-place finish in stage one, Layne Riggs quickly ran into a multitude of issues. First, he was penalized for crossing below the double white line entering turn 1 of the final lap of the stage. As Atlanta has similar rules to Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, going below the line is illegal, and Riggs had his finish in stage one (and subsequent stage points) wiped away. As the penalty was being handed down, Riggs then suffered an issue with his starter.
• Daytona winner Corey Heim suffered issues of his own at the end of stage two. After staying out at the end of stage one, Heim ran out of fuel with two laps to go in the second stage and lost several laps crawling to his pit stall. He then lost more laps when his No. 11 team had to replace the battery in his truck.
• The first caution for cause came on lap 74 when the Big One struck. Rajah Caruth suddenly spun in front of the field, collecting rookie teammate Andres Perez, Daniel Hemric and William Sawalich. Tyler Ankrum, Matt Mills, and Gio Ruggiero also got minor pieces of the incident. The incident took Caruth and Sawalich out of the race and put Hemric and Perez multiple laps down. The crash ended up drawing a red flag.

The Winning Move

The entire race was filled with jostling for position and quick moves for the lead. For most, they were fighting for the lead one lap, and were back outside the top 10 just a handful of laps later. All except Busch, who was able to counter every challenger’s move to take the lead back about half a lap after losing it.

The final 23 laps ran green, and several challengers tried their hand at taking down Rowdy, who (until Saturday) has won seven races at Atlanta and was the defending winner from last year. By the time the white flag rolled around, it was Friesen who emerged as the top candidate.

For Friesen, it was a chance to break a nearly three-year-long winless streak dating back to Texas Motor Speedway in 2022, and as the white flag waved, he found himself leading the pack into turn 1. However Busch was able to get momentum on the bottom, and with a push from Bayley Currey, inched ahead. However he was unable to get clear of Friesen heading into turn 3, and Friesen hung on Busch’s quarter panel and side drafted the No. 7 to pull back ahead.

Unfortunately, that was also Friesen’s demise, as Busch did the same thing to Friesen’s No. 52 coming to the line and was able to inch ahead just enough to win by 0.017 seconds. For Busch, it’s back-to-back wins at Atlanta. For Friesen, the winless streak continues at least one more race.

Championship Rundown

As Busch runs for Cup Series points, Corey Heim remains the lone driver locked into the playoffs after his Daytona win.

Rookie Report

In his first two career races in the Truck Series, Ruggiero has led the charge over the other rookies. Despite getting a piece of the Big One on lap 74, Ruggiero was able to recover and drive a smart race. He wasn’t able to crack the top 10, but 11th is still a very respectable finish for the young gun. Ruggiero now has an average finish of 6.5 in his first two races, both of which were superspeedway/drafting races.

No. 02 — Nathan Byrd (31st)
No. 5 — Toni Breidinger* (24th)
No. 07 – Michael McDowell (12th)
No. 17 — Gio Ruggiero* (11th)
No. 26 — Dawson Sutton* (17th)
No. 33 — Frankie Muniz* (26th)
No. 66 — Luke Fenhaus* (14th)
No. 77 — Andres Perez* (27th)
No. 81 — Connor Mosack* (25th)

One Big Takeaway From This Race

Chalk one up for “dumbest move of the day.”

And the craziest part was that it wasn’t anything of the drivers’ doing. Sort of.

Just after the lap 74 Big One, the red flag was thrown because it was discovered there was oil and other debris on the track (potentially from the No. 02 of Nathan Byrd, but the exact cause has not been determined). NASCAR stopped the field below the racing surface on the backstretch just before pit road.

However, as the track clean-up crew dropped speedy dry down on the track and the track dryers began making their way around the track, eventual race winner Busch expressed some concern.

”They’re going to blow all that right into our trucks,” Busch told his team over the radio. “We have no right side windows.”

It is true, the trucks did not have right side windows, and that was not clearly communicated (if it was communicated at all) by/to NASCAR and the track crew.

As the dryers passed down the backstretch, the inevitable happened.

"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere." pic.twitter.com/ShDAff3bOh

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 22, 2025

Surely NASCAR could have pulled the field down to pit road if it was dispatching crews to drop sandy speedy dry on the track. Or even gone back yellow to allow the dryers to pass through without trucks in harm’s way.

But somehow, no one did anything and all drivers remaining in the field got dusted with kitty litter. That’ll surely make for a long night of laundry, and probably a long week at the shop cleaning the trucks out.

NASCAR needs to take a look at this mishap and make sure it doesn’t happen again going forward. It’s a situation that could have been completely avoided altogether with a little communication.

Hopefully the trucks come out okay when they are washed and cleaned back at the shop.

Talkin’ Truckers

Busch on the win:

Friesen describes the frustration of coming so close but also the joy of being able to be there at the end:

Tyler Ankrum (third) and Currey (fourth) discuss their top five finishes:

Frankie Muniz (26th) frustrated he was crashed out after another good run:

Caruth (29th) and Sawalich (30th) talk about what happened on lap 74:

Paint Scheme of the Race

Note to all paint schemes designers in the Truck Series: You want to win Paint Scheme of the Race? Make your truck either green or multicolored.

This week, Josh Reaume’s No. 22 follows up Mosack’s brightly colored paint schemes from last week and arguably one-ups it.

🚀🚀 Matrix CAD Design returns with Aerial Titans on the No. 22 at @atlmotorspdwy

Watch live on FS1 Saturday 2/22 at 1:30pm ET pic.twitter.com/VXYaOimkvr

— Reaume Brothers Racing (@RBR_Teams) February 19, 2025

With sponsorship from Matrix CAD Designs, Reaume (who was originally slated to drive the No. 2 before switching with McGee) had all the colors of the rainbow on the truck, creating a psychedelic-looking paint scheme. Reaume also added on X that the contour on the truck represents the post-race scan from Lawless Alan’s truck at Darlington Raceway last season. Alan, who drove full-time for RBR last season, finished 12th in said race.

Next Stop

Let’s go gambling!

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has two weeks off before heading to Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday, March 14. Caruth is the defending winner of the race.

Coverage for the Ecosave 200 begins at 9 p.m. ET on Friday, March 14. Television can be found on FOX Sports 1, while radio coverage can now be found on the NASCAR Racing Network, a partnership between Performance Racing Network and Motor Racing Network to bring exclusive radio coverage of the Truck Series.