Featured Latest News NASCAR NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Kyle Busch Beats Stewart Friesen By 0.017 Seconds To Win At Atlanta Motor Speedway

by Hunter Thomas February 22, 2025 1 comment

HAMPTON, Ga. – Kyle Busch beat Stewart Friesen to the finish line by a mere 0.017 seconds to win the Fr8 Racing 208 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday.

Busch dominated the day in the Spire Motorsports No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet, but the race came down to the final few feet as he battled Friesen, who was trying to end a three-year losing streak. With two laps to go, Busch led the way down the backstretch, but with a huge push from Bayley Currey, Friesen flew by to take the lead heading into Turn 3. Friesen then went up the track to block, but he wasn’t able to hold Busch at bay.

“I was just trying to make sure I stayed as far forward as I possible could, you know, and those guys would kind of cycle to me and get to the next one in front of me, next one in front of me, next one in front of me,” Busch said. “I just kept trying to make sure I battled back and got back to the front so that I could try to control it as best as I could.”

The two drivers were even in Turns 1 and 2 on the final lap, but this time, Currey pushed Busch, and Friesen was too far ahead of Tyler Ankrum to receive help. Friesen led out of Turn 4, but Busch battled back to just barely beat him to the finish line.

“I got a big push from the 44 truck (Currey) at the end and was able to get back out front and get the win,” Busch said. “Glad we had a great race to the finish and these fans got a great show.”

Friesen’s runner-up finish on Saturday marked his first top-five of the season. He finished sixth in Stage 1 and eighth in Stage 2. He was in position to win, but at the end of the day, he wasn’t close enough to the truck behind him to receive any drafting helping.

“We had a shot,” Friesen said. “This is my favorite truck, and we will keep digging with it. We had a shot. I got too far off my help there coming down the back on the last lap. I thought I could pack some more air on him (Busch) getting into (turn) three and we surged ahead, but didn’t have the surge at the right time and he came back.”

Ankrum, Currey and Chandler Smith rounded out the top-five. Kade Honeycutt finished sixth, followed by Ben Rhodes, Ty Majeski, Jake Garcia and Grant Enfinger.

Jack Wood won Stage 1, and Busch won Stage 2.

There were 19 lead changes among 11 drivers. Busch led a race high of 80 laps.

The caution flag only flew on four occasions, and two were for stage breaks. The only caution for a crash occurred on Lap 75, when Rajah Caruth spun in front of the field exiting Turn 4. Five other drivers were involved as well, including William Sawalich, Ankrum, Daniel Hemric and Andres Perez De Lara. The red flag was displayed for 12 minutes 55 seconds for cleanup.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will now head out West to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Ecosave 200 on Friday, March 14. Live coverage will broadcast on FS1 at 9 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Mitchell White/TheFourthTurn.com