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Kyle Busch Wins At ISM Raceway; Captures Second Consecutive Xfinity Series Victory

by Hunter Thomas March 10, 2019 0 comments

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Kyle Busch won the iK9 Service Dog 200 on Saturday at ISM Raceway, his second consecutive victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Busch led a race high of 116 laps throughout the 200-lap race. The driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Extreme Concepts/iK9 Toyota inherited the lead on lap 134 after leaders, Justin Allgaier and Christopher Bell crashed. Stephen Leicht’s car went up in smoke and completely blinded the way into Turn 3. Allgaier and Bell were caught up in the smoke as they lost control of their cars. Busch went on to lead the final 67 laps of the race en route to the victory.

“We worked on it all day,” Busch said. “A lot like last week, just trying to put it all together. We certainly were off a little bit early on in the beginning. Christopher (Bell) was super fast and really really good. We kept making the adjustments to get it to where he was. We were doing a good job of that. I hate it that he got caught up in that mess behind us and we weren’t able to race it out there at the end. I figured we were going to and it was going to be a heck of a JGR showdown at the end. I can’t thank the iK9 guys enough. Everybody from iK9 Service Dog 200 here at ISM Raceway. Being able to drive the Extreme Concepts Racing car here with these boys and certainly want to thank everybody that works on this car and does such a great job for me.”

With the win, Busch has now won 198 NASCAR national series events.

“Any race we’re allowed to enter, I try to enter,” Busch said. “We pick and choose wisely, but there’s only so many to choose from. Of course, having the opportunity to come out here and race when you do, you try to go out there and win. That’s what we did today. I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to get it there early on, but that’s why we run these things out to the end.”

Ryan Truex captured his best-ever finish in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday. He started eighth in the MTJ Foundation/Sherry Strong/Catwalk For a Cause Chevy and battled his way to a runner-up finish.

Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer and Austin Cindric, who won Stage 1 rounded out the top-five. Completing the top-10 was Chase Briscoe, Brandon Jones, Michael Annett, John Hunter Nemechek and Ryan Sieg.

There were 12 lead changes among five leaders.

Out of the four cautions throughout the afternoon, only two were for accidents. The most notable accident was when Leicht’s car blew up while entering Turn 3 and collecting leader, Allgaier and Bell.

Bell said, “I saw him blow up going into one and I figured it was going to be slick, I saw the 7 (Justin Allgaier) car start sliding and I started sliding and as soon as I entered the smoke wall, I couldn’t see anything. I lost my bearings of where I was and the next thing you know, I was in the wall. Frustrating and very disappointing because our Rheem Supra was extremely strong.”

Leading the NASCAR Xfinity Series points is Reddick who is only four points ahead of Bell.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series will visit Auto Club Speedway on Saturday, March 16. Live coverage of the Production Alliance Group 300 will broadcast on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) and the Motor Racing Network (MRN) at 5 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Daniel Shirey/Getty Images