Kyle Busch completed a two-race sweep of ISM [formerly Phoenix International] Raceway on Sunday, following up his Saturday win of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race there with a win in the Ticket Guardian 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race. The win was Busch’s second-consecutive Cup Series win at the track, as he also won there last November and was his 199th win across NASCAR’s three national divisions.
“This Skittles Camry was awesome today,” Busch said. “The guys did a great job – Adam [Stevens, crew chief] and the boys. All through practice we worked on this thing each and every time and never gave up on it. Just kept trying to fine tune it and make it better and better each and every time.”
Busch led 177 of the 312 laps that made up the race, taking his final lead when he passed Ryan Blaney with 16 laps remaining.
“We knew the 12 [Blaney] was really really fast. He was probably the best car here this weekend,” Busch said. “I don’t know if he just got too tight in that long run. That’s what it looked like all of us were doing. Just seemed like I could get through there a little bit better. I tried to search around and find something that could help me to get me going a little bit better and get around to his outside and get the lead. Just an awesome day for us here at ISM Raceway.”
Martin Truex Jr. took runner-up honors after passing Blaney for second with four laps remaining. Blaney wound up third after leading 94 laps.
“The car was really fast there at the end,” Truex said. “Just a good day, overall, for our Bass Pro Camry. Everybody at JGR and TRD and everybody back at the shop are really doing a good job. Our boys in the pits did a good job today, as well, so thanks to Cole [Pearn, crew chief]. James [Small, engineer] and all the guys, we’re starting to click. We’re a little bit off on Fridays, and that’s getting us behind, but I feel like each weekend as the weekend goes, we’re getting a little strong and a little stronger. Two second places is pretty decent. We’ll just keep chipping away at it. Had a fun day today and congrats to Kyle and those guys.”
Busch went from the lead to fifth in the running order because of varying pit strategies during a caution for a Chase Elliott spin on lap 219. Blaney got back inside the top-five during the same caution with a two-tire stop after making an extra pit stop for a loose wheel during a previous caution.
“We were on two tires, and I just held on,” Blaney said. ”Actually, ours held on a lot better than what I thought it was going to, but then, when it got to 30 to go or 25 to go, I got kind of tight, and I couldn’t hit three and four anymore, and then, I ran up on lap traffic and it absolutely killed me. Once we got passed, we were kind of close on gas, so it was full fuel-save mode when you know you’re not gonna win the race. It was a good call to take two tires. I don’t think we would have got to third on four, because it was hard to pass out there. I’m proud of this team. We needed that. That’s where we’ve been running all year; it just hasn’t been where we’ve been finishing.”
Aric Almirola led several laps after taking two tires but was overtaken for the lead by Blaney with 61 laps remaining.
Blaney won the opening 75-lap stage of the race. After he started on the pole and led the first 35 laps before being passed by Busch, Blaney was among the 10 drivers who stayed out during a caution for Brad Keselowski on lap 63. As a result, he retook the lead.
Elliott looked to lead the first couple of laps after starting next to Blaney on the front row, but he was penalized for jumping the start.
Denny Hamlin also held a brief lead in the first stage when he was one of three drivers to take only two tires during a lap-39 caution for Erik Jones. But Busch retook his lead soon after restarting fourth with four new tires.
Busch, then, won the second stage after staying out during the caution between the two 75-lap stages in the first 150 laps.
The second stage ended under caution when the yellow flag was displayed after Alex Bowman hit the wall on lap 148.
Busch led throughout stage two.
Almirola and Hamlin rounded out the top-five.
“We had a good car, but we’re just not quite as good as we need to be,” Almirola said. ”We still have work to do, but I’m really proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. We keep chipping away. That’s three top-10s in a row, our first top-five of the year, so we’re getting there. Our cars are getting a little better, but we just have to keep working and keep finding more speed. We have a great race team, and we’ll continue to improve on what we’ve got, so we’ll just keep working. Our Smithfield Ford Mustang was decent, but just not quite good enough.”
Kyle Larson finished sixth, Kurt Busch was seventh, Jimmie Johnson eighth, Kevin Harvick ninth, and Joey Logano was 10th.
“It was a clean day for us, so I was happy about that,” Larson said. ”Had some really good restarts that kept us in the game. We worked on our balance throughout the race, tried to free it up and got too free and, then, had to go back on changes to tighten us back up. So, yeah, to come away with a sixth is nice after the last couple of weeks we’ve had of just making mistakes, and even this week, we made a big mistake in qualifying, but thankfully, we were able to work through it.”
