Kyle Busch passed Grant Enfinger with seven laps to go and then held off a final-lap charge from challengers Ty Majeski and Corey Heim to win the Fr8 208 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The win was the seventh in the Truck series for Busch at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the 65th of his career. He now has 230 total victories in NASCAR’s top three series. This is the 12th consecutive season that Busch has earned at least one Truck series victory.
Busch started seventh and was one of the race’s eight different leaders. Busch led seven times for 33 laps in his No. 7 Chevy, fielded by Spire Motorsports.
Busch moved into contention with 38 laps to go and then finally moved to the front when then-leader Enfinger’s No. 9 Chevy fell off the pace with seven laps to go. At that point Busch had to hold off Majeski and Heim in the closing laps. Majeski got to his bumper one time but Busch was able to stay out front and take the checkered flag.
“You are relying on help and the guys behind you to work with you and today Majeski was that guy for me,” Busch said. “Big thanks to Chevrolet and I appreciate Spire and everyone who has been a part of this organization. All of the fans in Rowdy Nation, we appreciate them too.”
Busch will try to make it a double victory weekend when he starts eighth in Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 (3 p.m., FOX, PRN Radio) at the controls of his No. 8 Chevy Camaro for Richard Childress Racing.
Second-place Majeski said he was back in the pack for most of the day and wasn’t able to have the track position he needed early in the day to get the victory.
“It’s tough, you want to win the race, but I felt like if I backed up to the 11 I was going to get hung out, so I stayed in there,” Majeski said. “I was trying to get a run in the closing laps and then I had a run, I got to Kyle’s bumper, but wasn’t able to get around him. I’m super proud of the day, the truck was good. Appreciate all the partners and we have some good things to look forward to this year with ThorSport. We had a fast truck, but we just needed a little track position to go with it.”
Heim also said he was trying to maintain his top-five position in the final laps.
“I didn’t think we were going to be a leader up front, but I was going to help Ty and Kyle,” said Heim, who finished third in his No. 11 machine. “I didn’t think we had the speed to be up front, and we got all we could out of it. We have good handling trucks and just lacked a little bit in the speed department. We’ll be OK, I’m looking forward to some of the races we have coming up.”
Taylor Gray finished fourth and was followed by season-opening Daytona winner Nick Sanchez in fifth.
The top-10 was completed by Kaden Honeycutt in sixth, seventh place Tyler Ankrum who led the most laps of the race with 46, speedy Rajah Caruth in eighth, pole winner Daniel Dye in ninth and Dean Thompson in 10th.
Defending race winner Christian Eckes finished last in his No. 19 Chevy after having issues and exiting the race on lap 50.
To purchase tickets for Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400, please visit www.atlantamotorspeedway.com or call 877-9-AMS-TIX.
