Kyle Busch wins 102nd Xfinity race, completes 2021 sweep in possible final start

Daniel Hemric might be the most snakebitten driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series today, if not all national series. Despite a strong final stage in Saturday’s Credit Karma Money 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his hopes of finally breaking through for his first career victory in any series were dashed with a late wreck. Instead, Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Kyle Busch won his 102nd career race in what is likely his final start in the series, which would cap off the most successful career in Xfinity history.

Busch started on the pole while Austin Dillon was sent to the rear as an injury replacement for Michael Annett. He would go on to lead every lap in the opening stage and win the second.

Hemric found himself in position for much of the final stage as he led 45 laps. However, the incidents began to pile up with less than twenty laps to go beginning with Carson Ware‘s accident. The slower car of Kyle Weatherman stayed out on the ensuing restart, but he spun his tyres and fell back before being clipped by Brandon Brown and Harrison Burton, causing him to go around and set up another restart.

Weatherman apologised to Burton and Brown in a Twitter video, explaining the “shifter got stuck in second (gear) and literally can’t get it to come out of second gear. Of course it happened at the worst time. We were out of tyres, didn’t have any tyres to take. Had good speed, we were running sixteenth, seventeenth all day. Figured we could possibly maintain. I chose the outside to try to give the leaders the inside, of course just a crappy situation.”

Hemric took off and Busch attempted to give him a draft, but he provided too strong of a push that instead sent his team-mate into A.J. Allmendinger and the wall; he would be relegated to a thirtieth-place finish as his drought continues.

The Hemric caution resulted in overtime, which saw Busch hold off Jeb Burton to win his third career Xfinity race at Atlanta. He also won all five of his allowed starts in 2021 alongside COTA, Texas, Nashville, and Road America; it is the second season in which he had a 100% win rate in a lower division after doing so in the Camping World Truck Series in 2019.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	1	54	Kyle Busch*	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	164	Running
2	11	10	Jeb Burton	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	164	Running
3	9	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	164	Running
4	7	11	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	164	Running
5	30	23	Ty Dillon	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	164	Running
6	20	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	164	Running
7	8	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	164	Running
8	19	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	164	Running
9	22	8	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	164	Running
10	4	22	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	164	Running
11	6	1	Austin Dillon*	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	164	Running
12	16	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	164	Running
13	3	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	164	Running
14	32	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	164	Running
15	17	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	164	Running
16	14	44	Tommy Joe Martins	Martins Motorsports	Chevrolet	164	Running
17	27	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing	Chevrolet	164	Running
18	18	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	164	Running
19	10	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	164	Running
20	36	15	Colby Howard	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	164	Running
21	15	2	Myatt Snider	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	164	Running
22	37	0	Jeffrey Earnhardt	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	164	Running
23	28	31	Josh Berry	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	164	Running
24	5	20	Harrison Burton	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	164	Running
25	33	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	164	Running
26	24	5	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	164	Running
27	29	90	Ronnie Bassett Jr.	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	164	Running
28	31	78	Jesse Little	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Toyota	164	Running
29	23	99	Mason Massey	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Toyota	164	Running
30	2	18	Daniel Hemric	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	164	Running
31	12	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	163	Accident
32	38	47	Kyle Weatherman	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	162	Accident
33	25	26	Santino Ferrucci	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	162	Running
34	39	74	Bayley Currey*	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	162	Running
35	40	52	Gray Gaulding	Jimmy Means Racing	Chevrolet	160	Running
36	26	17	Carson Ware	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	139	Accident
37	34	66	C.J. McLaughlin*	MBM Motorsports	Ford	139	Running
38	21	4	Landon Cassill	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	128	Running
39	13	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	118	Accident
40	35	61	David Starr	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	50	Accident

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