Kyle Busch Earns First Win As Driver-Owner At Nashville
Kyle Busch joined an exclusive club Friday night as the Las Vegas, NV native picked up a win on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series netting his KBM race team their first victory and Busch's first as a NASCAR team owner.
Courtesy: NASCAR Media Relations
LEBANON, Tenn.
— Kyle Busch delivered a smashing performance Friday night in the
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series' Nashville 200 at Nashville
Superspeedway.
He just didn't deliver a smashing celebration.
Busch,
who started from the pole position, led 131 of the 150 laps around the
1.33-mile concrete oval and cruised to a victory by 0.426 seconds over
Kevin Harvick.
The
victory was the first in the Camping World Truck Series and first
NASCAR national touring series victory for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Busch turned his Late Model team into a truck team after the 2009
season, and it took only four truck races for Busch to find victory
lane in his own equipment.
"It's
a big deal," Busch said. "It's always nice to win anytime you're in
anybody's stuff. But especially in your own, it seems to sit a lot
better within yourself. This is a big deal that we've taken on this
year and (my fiancée) Samantha being a part of that, too.
"There
was a lot of blood, sweat and tears this winter put into this deal. …
I'm very proud of everybody and the way they've worked so hard this
year."
A
change in teams also included a change in celebrations for Busch, who
smashed the Gibson guitar that serves as Nashville's trophy last June
after winning a Nationwide Series race. The act—which Busch said wasn't
meant as a sign of disrespect to the track nor artist Sam Bass, who
painted the guitar—created a stir for a driver who already battles his
share of controversy.
This
time, Busch just held the guitar over his head as he celebrated his
17th victory in 72 career starts in the series. It was the first time
Busch had raced a truck at Nashville and the first time he won in a
truck owned by someone other than Billy Ballew.
"I
gave the guitar to Sam and told Sam if he wanted to do any damage to my
truck, he could have at it," Busch said. "But he didn't. It's all good."
Following
Busch and Harvick across the finish line were Ron Hornaday, Harvick's
teammate, then Timothy Peters and Todd Bodine. In a race that had only
two cautions, only eight drivers finished on the lead lap, with Matt
Crafton in sixth, Mike Skinner in seventh and Aric Almirola in eighth.
"It's
good that (Busch) won," Harvick said. "Obviously they put a lot of
effort into it. He's going to win, whether it's his truck or Billy
Ballew's truck. … It was just a matter of time before they won."
Peters leads the points by 82 over Almirola and 93 over Bodine.
The truck series has a month off before racing May 2 at Kansas Speedway.
