Written by Adrian Beecher
Phoenix, AZ – After a stage three caution took two of the strongest drivers of the day in Christopher Bell and Justin Allgaier, Kyle Busch cruised to victory at ISM Raceway on Saturday afternoon.
Early on the battle for the lead was a tightly contestes battle between Christopher Bell and Kyle Busch. During short runs, Bell had the clear advantage, while Busch’s car improved during the longer runs.
A caution just ahead of the end of stage one would cause a shuffle in the mix and Austin Cindric found his way to the front of the pack and was able to hold off Bell in the final laps of stage 1.
In stage two, it was a dominating performance from Bell as he cruised to the victory, exchanging the lead with Busch twice.
Then came the game changer, in the form of stage 3. 41 laps into the stage, with Kyle Busch leaing the pack, and Allgaier and Bell hot on his tail, disaster struck.
The engine of the No. 01 teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet blew its engine with Stephen Leicht behind the wheel going into turn three. This spilled oil all
This made a recipe for disaster, one the Algaier and Bell both found their way into. Algaier was able to maintain control of his No. 7 Brandt Professional Agriculture Chevrolet, as it slid up the track going into turn four and his back right end of his car crunched in.
Then, Bell took his turn, but he couldnt see anything and eded up sliding in backwards into the outside wall, destroying his No. 20 Rheem Toyota, ending his day after so much promise.
“I saw him blow up so I knew that I was in trouble. I saw the 7 (Justin Allgaier) get sideways and then by that time, I entered the smoke wall and I knew that I was sliding, but I just couldn’t see anything and didn’t know where I was and I backed her into the wall.” said a
The accident all but cleared the way for Busch, who led the remaining 67 laps of the race and pulled into victory lane in the Xfinity series for the 2nd straight week in a row.
“Kind of like last week. Christopher (Bell) was certainly going to give me a run for my money today. Can’t say enough about our guys at Joe Gibbs Racing. Obviously, they build really fast Supras. I want to say thanks to iK9.” said an excited Kyle Busch, “This is the iK9 Service Dog 200, so certainly really really cool to be able to win for them again and to be able to put them in victory lane back to back and in their race here at ISM Raceway. Super thankful for them for the opportunity to come out here and run a few races each year and to be able to put on a good show. Christopher, I hate it he got caught up in that mess, but it was obviously really going to be a fun run to the end there.”
The win marked number 198 overall for Busch in the top overall three NASCAR Series and his 94th overall win in the Xfinity Series. Busch will now look to get to win number 199 on Sunday as he races in the Ticket Guardian 500 at ISM Raceway, where he will start in the 4th position.
