HAMPTON, Ga. – With seven previous Atlanta Motor Speedway trophies in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series already on his mantel, Kyle Busch was the odds-on favorite for Saturday’s Fr8 Racing 208. The veteran did not disappoint.
Pulling ahead of Stewart Friesen about 20 yards from the finish line, Busch’s No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet held on for a slight .017-second win as the two passed side-by-side under the checkered flag. It was Busch’s record eighth series victory at the track. He led a race-high 80 of the 135 laps but definitely earned his hardware this weekend with a half-dozen trucks going door-to-door with the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion in the closing 20 laps.
MORE: Race results | At-track photos: Atlanta
“Awesome run for this Spire Chevrolet and everybody at [sponsor] Gainbridge,” Busch said, thanking the fans in the grandstands for coming out in the cloudy 50-degree Atlanta weather.
“Just trying to make sure I stayed as far forward as I possibly could,” Busch said of how he held off the field in the closing laps. “Those guys would cycle to me and get to the next one in front, next one in front of me and I just made sure to keep battling back and got back to the front so I could control it the best I could. That inside [lane] was good, they were rolling forward so it made for a heck of a race.”
“I’m proud we had a heck of a race there to the finish and it wasn’t single-file. There was some mixing it up for these fans out here to see a cool show.”
As elated as Busch was in claiming his record 67th NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win – and record 232nd national series win – Friesen could only muster a slight smile conceding he gave it his best in the thrilling finish.
“Just proud of my race team here,” the Canadian owner-driver of the No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota said. “We had a shot. This is my favorite truck and we’ll keep digging with it. We had a shot and I guess I got too far off my help there coming off the back on my last lap. I thought I could pack some more air on him coming out of three and surge ahead, but just had the surge at the wrong time and he came back.”
With Busch and Friesen ultimately the pair fighting for the checkered flag, Tyler Ankrum and Bayley Currey crossed the finish line side-by-side just behind, a mere .001-second separating the two. Georgia native Chandler Smith finished fifth – all of these drivers giving Busch a challenge in those last laps.
Kaden Honeycutt, two-time series champion Ben Rhodes, reigning series champion Ty Majeski, Jake Garcia and Grant Enfinger rounded out the top 10 in a race with 19 lead changes among 11 drivers and only a pair of caution flags beyond the scheduled stage breaks.
Of note, championship favorite Corey Heim ran out of gas while running third, one lap before the Stage 2 break. He was never able to make up the three laps he lost to that miscue and finished 23rd. It was also a rough ending for 25-year-old rookie Connor Mosack, who earned his first series pole position and led 30 laps, but was involved in a late-race incident and finished 25th.
A red flag came out on Lap 78 after Rajah Caruth spun on the bottom of Turn 4, collecting multiple trucks. William Sawalich, Daniel Hemric and Andrés Pérez de Lara were among the drivers who were swept up in this incident.
Jack Wood won the opening stage, and Busch claimed the second stage win. Giovanni Ruggiero was the top-finishing rookie in 11th place. Tanner Gray earned an additional championship point for claiming the Fastest Lap Bonus.
Enfinger takes a one-point advantage over Majeski into the series’ next race, Friday, March 14 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (9 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Note: Post-race inspection in the Craftsman Truck Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Busch as the Atlanta winner.
Contributing: Staff reports