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FORT WORTH, Texas — Opportunistic Kyle Busch sped away from the rest of the field after a restart with 33 laps left in Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway and collected his second straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory.

What’s more, Busch won his fourth straight NASCAR national series race, having swept last week’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR Sprint Cup events at Martinsville Speedway and having won Friday night’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Texas.

“It’s pretty darn good, I’ll tell you that,” Busch said of his streak — and life. “I’ve got a great wife, a great son and I’m having a blast, living the dream.”

Quite simply, the prodigious numbers continue to pile up for the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Busch posted his 36th victory of his Sprint Cup career and his second at Texas, having also swept the spring weekend at the 1.5-mile speedway in 2013.

Busch is the second driver to sweep consecutive NASCAR weekends. Harry Gant accomplished the feat in 1991, winning both the NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Sprint Cup races on consecutive weekends at Richmond and Dover.

With the victory, Busch also virtually secured a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, as he will look to defend the title he won last year.

“Our car was really, really fast, especially entry and center of the corner, and as the night progressed, I think the track actually came to us a little bit,” said Busch, who took over the series lead by six points over fourth-place finisher Jimmie Johnson. “Our car got a lot better, and (crew chief) Adam (Stevens) made some great adjustments all night long.

“We fought it in the beginning. We weren’t very good …”

Just good enough to win at the end.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. came home second after passing eventual third-place finisher Joey Logano for the runner-up spot with eight laps left. Johnson ran fourth, despite a succession of pit road issues, the first of which involved contact with Busch’s Toyota during the first pit stops of the race on Lap 30.

Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Chase Elliott scored a career-best fifth-place finish, one spot ahead of Martin Truex Jr., who led a race-high 141 laps but lost ground on old tires during the final 33-lap green-flag run.

“It hurts a little bit, but we’ll just take the positives and move on,” said Truex, who was the clear class of the field until divergent pit strategies proved his undoing.

Truex and Austin Dillon stayed out on old tires under caution on Lap 290 while all other lead-lap cars came to pit road for fresh tires. Though Truex maintained his lead, the move was disastrous for Dillon, who dropped back rapidly after the restart on Lap 293 and washed up the track racing off Turn 2 in close quarters with Denny Hamlin.

Dillon’s Chevrolet slid up into the path of Jimmie Johnson, who was unable to avoid contact. Dillon was turned sharply into the outside wall and bounced across the track into oncoming traffic. The resulting 13-car accident damaged all three Richard Childress Racing cars and scrambled the field for the decisive restart on Lap 302.

RELATED: Thirteen-car wreck claims all three RCR cars

Busch rocketed to the outside at the drop of the green flag, and cleared Logano through Turns 3 and 4 as Truex faded on old rubber.

“The restart was going to be key,” Busch said. “If I could just get out in front of him, I knew I could protect the rest of the race. They had a good restart, but we got a better one, and I just had to get up on his door. He chose the inside and the inside has been winning the race all night long, but this time, on the last restart, (the outside) finally prevailed for us.”

Polesitter Carl Edwards led 124 laps but returned to pit road with a loose wheel after a restart on Lap 222 and spent nearly 70 circuits one lap down before working his way back to seventh at the finish. Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick completed the top 10.

 

MORE: All of Kyle’s Cup wins

RELATED: Full Texas schedule 

FORT WORTH — Stewart-Haas Racing crew chief Tony Gibson was back at the race track Saturday after spending the first two days of the Texas Motor Speedway race weekend with his wife, Beth, who is hospitalized in North Carolina being treated for a colon infection.

Gibson was pushing his driver Kurt Busch‘s No. 41 Chevrolet through the TMS garage Saturday afternoon in preparation for the Duck Commander 500. He said he spent his time back home bedside with his wife, and they are hopeful she is released from the hospital early next week.

“She’s in and out of X-rays and things like that and it’s got to run its course,” said Gibson, noting they just celebrated their 25th anniversary earlier in the week.

“We’ll race today and then it’s back to the hospital (for me).

“You want to be in a hospital where people know what they’re doing. We’ll ride it out however long it takes.”

Gibson posted a photo of himself and his wife on Twitter Saturday and thanked people for their support.

It’s hard to leave this morning knowing @gibson_beth is still in the hospital. Thanks everyone for the support�� pic.twitter.com/G7f2QKp9Gx

— Tony Gibson (@TonyOldman41) April 9, 2016

Johnny Klausmeier served as interim crew chief in Gibson’s absence, according to the team.

MORE: Live weather updates from Texas

 

FORT WORTH — Light rain in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has postponed the start of Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 (green flag originally scheduled for 7:46 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, Sirius XM NASCAR radio) at Texas Motor Speedway.

 

NASCAR Air Titans were turning laps drying the 1.5-mile track and officials were optimistic to get the race in shortly.

 

Jimmie Johnson, the defending winner of the race, has won the last three straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events here.

 

Carl Edwards will start the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota from the pole position tonight alongside the No. 22 Team Penske Ford of Joey Logano.

 

MORE: What drivers are doing in the rain | Every paint scheme, team rosters

RELATED: Full starting lineup

 

Chase Elliott ‘s No. 24 Chevrolet will move to the rear of the field for Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 (7:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) due to a transmission change, NASCAR.com has learned.

 

Elliott had qualified his Hendrick Motorsports machine fourth Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, but will now start on the back row.

 

A contender for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors, Elliott has three top-10 finishes in six starts this season. He’s currently 16th in the points standings and the final driver in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Grid.

RELATED: See the weekend schedule | Photos of every paint scheme, lineup

 

Tony Gibson, crew chief for driver Kurt Busch and the No. 41 Chevrolet team, arrived at the track Saturday and will call the race after missing the first two days at Texas, a spokesperson from Stewart-Haas Racing confirmed.

The team had announced Thursday that Gibson would miss the first two days of the race weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.
 
SHR said through its official Twitter account that Gibson, 51, would stay home in North Carolina to care for his wife, who is dealing with an unspecified illness. The team indicated at the time that Gibson planned to rejoin the No. 41 team in time for Saturday’s Duck Commander 500 (7:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the seventh NASCAR Sprint Cup race of the season.

 

Johnny Klausmeier served as interim crew chief in Gibson’s absence, according to the team.
 

Johnny Klausmeier, engineer on the No. 41 car, will serve as crew chief for @KurtBusch today & tomorrow … (1/2)

— Stewart-Haas Racing (@StewartHaasRcng) April 7, 2016

(2/2) @TonyOldman41 is back home in NC with his wife as she is under the weather. He plans to be @TXMotorSpeedway Saturday for the race.

— Stewart-Haas Racing (@StewartHaasRcng) April 7, 2016

Gibson tweeted Saturday morning that he was on his way to the track, and that his wife was in the hospital.

 

It’s hard to leave this morning knowing @gibson_beth is still in the hospital. Thanks everyone for the support�� pic.twitter.com/G7f2QKp9Gx

— Tony Gibson (@TonyOldman41) April 9, 2016

“It’s a good way to gauge how well we’re prepared for situations like this,” Busch said on Thursday. “Tony Gibson’s a great leader and everybody’s ready to step up when he’s gone.”
 
Gibson joined SHR in 2009. He has been paired with Busch since the end of the 2014 season, winning two races with the former premier-series champion in that span.

RELATED: Full Texas schedule | Texas in photos

FORT WORTH — Far from feeling any extra pressure to perform at his home track, Texas Motor Speedway, native Texan Chris Buescher fully expects to feel the love and support here, and just maybe complete a breakthrough performance.

The defending XFINITY Series champion from nearby Prosper, Texas transitioned to the Sprint Cup Series full-time this year and is driving the No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford for Front Row Motorsports in a technical alliance with the Roush-Fenway Racing team — the organization he earned the XFINITY title with.

“It’s always nice being back home,” Buescher said smiling. “I’ve got a lot of family and friends coming out, so there’s no extra pressure, but I get to see a lot more people, which is definitely nice.

“It’s the second time coming back here on the Cup side, and I feel like we’ve made some pretty big improvements from where we started this race last year, and we have some pretty good notes to go off of from Fontana this year. Hoping that a lot of that will translate into this race being that the surface is worn out. It is bumpy.

“I feel like there are some places where we can improve, just trying to figure out how to make it all carry over into this race track. I like coming here.” 

Buescher, 23, is still looking for his first top-20 showing this season and is coming off back-to-back 33rd place finishes at Fontana, Calif. and Martinsville, Va. His best effort is 28th at Atlanta Motor Speedway — a 1.54-mile track — which is similar to the 1.5-mile Texas track.

Last year he made six Cup starts, earning a career best of 20th at Auto Club Speedway. He was 30th at Texas in the April race.

This is clearly his home field — in every sense of the expression. His parents and longtime friends will be in the grandstands sitting in seats they have had since the facility opened 20 years ago.

And while Buescher fully understands he is in the midst of a huge learning curve, he is hopeful that as he starts giving venues a second and third look the results will improve.

Certainly no one else in Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 field has raced at this facility so much in so many varied ways. Buescher says he’s competed on the fifth-mile track, the quarter-mile track, the infield road course and remembers winning in a Legends car on the Dirt Track.

His best showing in the XFINITY Series here on the Texas high banks was a ninth place in 2015.

“I’ve been to this facility more times than I can count,” he said. “I’ve watched more races from my parents’ season ticket spot in the grandstands than I can count, so it’s pretty neat. I always know where they’re at and I can actually see them from the driver intro stage, which is pretty neat. They’re right there on the start-finish line and have been here since I think this place opened. It’s been a long time, so it’s pretty neat to be on the other side of the fence now and actually being able to run (on) it.

“Like I said, I watched a ton of races from up in the grandstands, and I’m not a very good race fan because I want to be participating so badly that it drives me nuts watching. It’s nice to be a part of it now.”

Buescher qualified 34th for Saturday night’s race behind three rookies and in front of one. It is the best Cup starting position he’s had. And he is optimistic.

RELATED: See the full lineup for Saturday’s event

“I feel really good about where we’re heading this year on the Cup side,” Buescher said. “It’s been a little bit of a rocky start just looking at our finishes, but we’ve had speed at some of these race tracks — not all of them — but we’ve had speed at a couple to get started here and we just haven’t had things really go our way.

While he hasn’t had the finishes in Cup that he became accustomed to in the XFINITY Series, Buescher does have that thoughtful, calm demeanor that recognizes hard work and experience are the surest ways to advance. Each week Buescher is certain he and his team are a bit better.

“It’s tough, but it’s something that I fully expected,” Buescher said. “I didn’t plan to come over here and be running top 5 in Week 2 after Daytona, but it’s going to be a learning experience. I’ve told the whole team that. I said, ‘Be patient because I have a lot of learning to do.’ 

“It’s a very new situation, not only for myself but it’s a new crew chief to me with Bob (Osborne), it’s a new team, most of the guys on the 34 are different from what they were last year, and there’s the new relationship with Roush Fenway and Front Row Motorsports. There are so many moving parts that we’re having to try and adjust to right now that it’s gonna take a little bit to get everything flowing smoothly and start running more competitively.

“Until then, yes, it is a hard transition to come off of a championship year and be getting the finishes that we have so far, but it’s not due to lack of effort and it’s not gonna stay where it’s at very long. We’re gonna get better to the point where we start feeling a lot better about our finishes and hopefully where we can start coming back up in points this year.”

MORE: Buescher has funny moment with Biffle