(photo courtesy matt sullivan getty images)
Joe Gibbs Racing driver #18 Kyle Busch was dominant today and scored a win today in the Heads up Georgia 250 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Busch led a total of 119 laps today and secured win # 77 and his first win on the 1.54-mile Atlanta track.
“It certainly means a lot, just to accomplish some of the goals I have in the sport,” Busch said. “To come out here and do this today — to beat Kyle Larson at what must be one of his favorite tracks, where he can move all over the track and he’s really good. Just real proud of our team.
“This NOS Energy Drink Camry was really fast. It looks really good on the race track, and it looks even better here in Victory Lane.”
The only tracks left that Kyle has not got the checkers at are Las Vegas, Mid-Ohio and Watkins Glen. These are tracks still currently being run in the Xfinity Series.
Kyle Larson tried to close the gap in the closing laps but settled for the runner up spot. Larson has now finished second to Busch on four occasions in his career.
“I was trying to use that high line there as much as I could to get some momentum through 1 and 2,” Larson said. “Kyle’s so strong but we had a fast car for sure. Lost that momentum we were looking for at the end but overall a good day for us.”
At the very beginning of the race the Joe Gibbs Racing phenom, Eric Jones, was quick to jump the start and beat polesitter Kyle Busch to the starting line, a NASCAR no-no. NASCAR penalized Jones for the jump start and made him come down pit road in a “pass through” penalty at pit road speed. In spite of the early infraction Jones was able to come back through the field and finish in third place.
Paul Menard and Ty Dillon rounded out the top five.
Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez, Justin Allgaier, Elliott Sadler and Jeb Burton completed the first ten finishers.
Elliott Sadler remains the Xfinity Series points leader over Daniel Suarez.
The NASCAR XFINITY Series now heads to Las Vegas next Saturday for the Boyd Gaming 300 where Austin Dillon is the defending race winner.
