Kyle Busch scores first superspeedway win in 15 years

A McLaren car has technically won a race in 2023.

In his maiden race with sponsorship from McLaren Custom Grills (no relation to that McLaren), Kyle Busch secured his first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Talladega Superspeedway and on such tracks since 2008. He battled with Bubba Wallace for much of the overtime restart and Wallace seemed to have the momentum on the outside as he received a push from his friend Ryan Blaney, only for Wallace to make too aggressive of a block and trigger a five-car wreck that collected himself.

Busch inched ahead of Blaney on the inside to assume the lead when the caution came out to end the race. Interestingly, all three of Busch’s superspeedway wins in the Cup Series came after the races ended under yellow.

“Last time I won here, fifteen years ago, my first year with JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing). Here we are with my first year in RCR (Richard Childress Racing) being able to get back into Victory Lane at Talladega,” commented Busch. “It’s been a little bit.

“We were obviously short on fuel, kind of stretching it. I don’t think we would have taken that chance, I probably wouldn’t have taken that chance of staying out but for the win in Fontana. That opened up our playbook, gave us a chance to be up front, restart up front and go for a win today.

“Just being in the right place at the right time. Sometimes you got to be lucky.”

Blaney had led a race-high forty-seven laps but the late carnage and nature of superspeedway racing prevented him from clinching victory. As multi-car wrecks mounted in the third stage, fuel mileage became a major concern among the field as many elected to stay out instead of pit for gas prior to overtime. This move ultimately bit Ty Gibbs, who was fighting with Blaney with twenty laps to go, when he ran out coming to the restart.

Gibbs was among nine retirements, with everyone else being taken out in the string of Stage #3 crashes. One of the victims was Blaney’s team-mate Joey Logano, who got shuffled out of line with twenty laps remaining and bumped by Corey LaJoie to trigger seven-car accident. An even bigger crash occurred on the ensuing restart when Ross Chastain attempted to force himself into a three-abreast battle for the lead with Blaney and Noah Gragson but instead collided with Gragson, who was shot up the track.

The crash culminated in Kyle Larson sliding off the racing surface before coming back into the oncoming path of Ryan Preece, and the ensuing T-bone was so destructive that it shot Larson’s door bar up and sheared off part of his passenger’s side door. Said bar is typically covered by a metal plate intended to protect the cockpit from fire but is not built for such high-speed collisions.

Larson’s car was eventually taken to NASCAR’s Research & Development Centre for further evaluation.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	17	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	196	Running
2	5	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	196	Running
3	10	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	196	Running
4	4	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	196	Running
5	20	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	196	Running
6	24	43	Erik Jones	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	196	Running
7	18	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	196	Running
8	6	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	196	Running
9	22	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	196	Running
10	28	36	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	196	Running
11	38	51	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	196	Running
12	29	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	196	Running
13	27	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	196	Running
14	32	77	Ty Dillon	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	196	Running
15	33	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	196	Running
16	13	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing	Toyota	196	Running
17	1	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	196	Running
18	37	78	B.J. McLeod	Live Fast Motorsports	Chevrolet	196	Running
19	26	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	196	Running
20	36	15	Riley Herbst*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	196	Running
21	11	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	196	Running
22	2	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	196	Running
23	23	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	196	Running
24	31	62	Austin Hill*	Beard Motorsports	Chevrolet	196	Running
25	34	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	196	Running
26	15	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	196	Running
27	7	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	196	Running
28	12	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	195	Accident
29	19	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	195	Accident
30	8	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	195	Running
31	3	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	194	Fuel
32	30	42	Noah Gragson	Legacy Motor Club	Chevrolet	189	Accident
33	9	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	189	Accident
34	16	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	189	Accident
35	21	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	189	Running
36	25	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	183	Accident
37	35	38	Zane Smith*	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	141	Accident
38	14	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	141	Accident

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points