Kyle Busch wins first Sonoma Truck race since 1998

Only thirty-nine drivers have won a race in each of NASCAR’s three national series (Cup, Xfinity, Camping World Trucks). Only Kyle Busch can say he did it on road courses too.

Busch has four road course victories apiece in the Cup and Xfinity Series, but the scarcity of such tracks in the Trucks for much of his career meant the trifecta eluded him until Saturday. Sonoma Raceway, hosting a Truck race for the first time since 1998, welcomed Busch to Truck Victory Lane as he led forty-five of seventy-five laps including the final eleven and through a late red flag to win.

“You look back at the history of the sport and the Truck Series growing up in California, these were their parts,” Busch recalled as he discussed the value of the Trucks returning to Sonoma. “It basically started in Bakersfield and Sonoma on a yearly basis there, so now that its back, it was good to come out and knock the rust off a little bit with the road racing and stuff. I didn’t want to run sim this week, so I thought the road course would knock that off. […] Being a part of Kyle Busch Motorsports, and us being in the sport this long, it means a lot to get more diverse tracks on the schedule and get some wins at those places.”

Busch and Ross Chastain, Cup drivers using the race to prepare for their main series’ event on Sunday, dominated by combining to lead all but eleven laps. The exceptions came when Ty Majeski inherited the lead late in Stage #1 as the leaders pitted, leading to his first career stage win, Grant Enfinger during the ensuing caution, and Ben Rhodes following the same strategy as his ThorSport Racing team-mate Majeski.

Rhodes also led three laps under caution following Matt DiBenedetto and Stewart Friesen‘s accident. The largest incident of the day came when Friesen clipped Josh Bilicki as they entered the left-hand turn one, causing Bilicki to slam into the barrier and collect Alex Bowman. The accident resulted in a thirteen-minute red flag for cleanup before the race resumed with a two-lap sprint. Busch held off Zane Smith, who won the first road race of the season at COTA after capitalising on last-lap contact that eliminated Busch from the win, over those two circuits.

The victory also came in Busch’s fifth and final permitted Truck start as a Cup driver, enabling him to continue his streak of winning at least one Truck race annually since 2013. He continued, “I look back on the missed year of 2011 or 2012, where I didn’t get a win. I think we finished second like six times that year or something stupid. That was frustrating. That’s more bitter than this one not winning, but it’s good to be able to score a win. We were in position a few times this year. We had a couple really, really fast race trucks. Vegas comes to mind, COTA comes to mind, so we didn’t miss by very much, just circumstances, but proud to get one today. Everything kind of went our way, and we had a fast truck.”

While Busch and Chastain dominated the event, they were not the only Cup drivers using the race for extra track time. Harrison Burton placed twelfth for David Gilliland Racing ahead of Austin Dillon finished seventeenth in the #20 for Young’s Motorsports. Bowman and Bilicki’s wreck respectively relegated them to twenty-ninth and thirtieth. Daniel Suárez scored a sixth-place finish in relief of pole winner Carson Hocevar, who started at the rear (for wrecking his truck moments after setting the fastest qualifying time) before stepping aside as he is nursing a broken right tibia.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	3	51	Kyle Busch*	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	75	Running
2	13	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	75	Running
3	4	66	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	75	Running
4	2	41	Ross Chastain*	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	75	Running
5	14	18	Chandler Smith	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	75	Running
6	1	42	Carson Hocevar/Daniel Suárez	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	75	Running
7	11	75	Parker Kligerman	Henderson Motorsports	Chevrolet	75	Running
8	7	4	John Hunter Nemechek	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota	75	Running
9	5	16	Tyler Ankrum	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	75	Running
10	12	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	75	Running
11	8	23	Grant Enfinger	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	75	Running
12	23	17	Harrison Burton*	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	75	Running
13	27	15	Tanner Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	75	Running
14	20	02	Kaz Grala	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	75	Running
15	25	61	Chase Purdy	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	75	Running
16	28	24	Jack Wood	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	75	Running
17	16	20	Austin Dillon*	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	75	Running
18	17	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	75	Running
19	22	91	Colby Howard	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	75	Running
20	31	62	Todd Bodine	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	75	Running
21	29	9	Blaine Perkins	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	75	Running
22	32	43	Brad Pérez	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota	75	Running
23	36	12	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	75	Running
24	33	40	Dean Thompson	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	75	Running
25	19	45	Lawless Alan	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	75	Running
26	30	44	Kris Wright	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	75	Running
27	15	19	Derek Kraus	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	74	Running
28	21	56	Timmy Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota	73	Running
29	6	7	Alex Bowman*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	71	Accident
30	26	30	Josh Bilicki*	On Point Motorsports	Toyota	70	Accident
31	10	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	70	Accident
32	9	1	Hailie Deegan	David Gilliland Racing	Ford	66	Accident
33	34	33	Jade Buford*	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota	61	Transmission
34	24	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	54	Transmission
35	18	98	Christian Eckes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota	26	Accident
36	35	46	Stefan Parsons*	G2G Racing	Toyota	9	Oil Cooler

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