Kyle Busch has won the NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway after five restarts over the final 40 laps, as well as an intense overtime battle with Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin.
Rowdy had the best car in the field outside of St. Louis. He started from pole position, won Stage 1, and led a race-high 121 laps in the #8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. He then notched his 11th season with at least three wins.
The two-time champion had the best car, but he did not have an easy path to Victory Lane. The final stage had several cautions and two red flags, which kept bunching the field up for restarts. Busch and Larson continued to make up the front row as they each battled for their third win of the season.
Larson had a strong car after his crew made multiple adjustments, but he was on the inside row while Busch was on the preferred outside. This gave the driver of the #8 a slight advantage, as did strong pushes from the cars on the second row.
Busch, who joined Richard Childress Racing after 15 seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing, now has more than two wins in a season for the first time since 2019. He won five that year, as well as his second Cup Series championship.
The race at World Wide Technology Raceway was half the distance of last week’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but it had twice the amount of odd moments.
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There was a spin by Tyler Reddick in the opening laps, a delay for multiple lightning strikes near the track, a complete loss of fiber at the track that took away SMT data for the teams, and a power outage that temporarily killed the TV and radio feeds. There were also three red flags during the race, two of which were for track work.
The other major storylines during the 303.75-mile (488.84-kilometre) race were the brake rotors. There were four separate malfunctions that sent drivers into the wall and ended their days.
Carson Hocevar was the first to exit the race. The Truck Series regular made his Cup Series debut while replacing Corey LaJoie in the #7 Chevrolet, and he ran 16th overall during the second stage. However, his rotor exploded and sent him into the wall.
Reddick was the second to experience an issue. He was running seventh on Lap 173 when his rotor exploded. He hit the wall and significantly damaged the right side of the #45 Toyota.
Rookie Noah Gragson was the third driver to hit the wall. His rotor blew on the straight on Lap 198. Unlike LaJoie and Reddick who steered into the wall, Gragson tried to steer through Turn 1. However, he lost control and slammed hard into the wall.
The final brake rotor failure occurred with five laps to go, which sent the race to overtime. Bubba Wallace was running 11th when his rotor exploded. He slammed into the wall multiple times before working his way back to his pit stall. This incident snapped his three-race streak of top-five finishes.
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