LONG POND — Apparently, it doesn’t matter right now what series Kyle Busch drives. He’s going to find Victory Lane.
NASCAR Sprint Cup. NASCAR Xfinity. And now, the Camping World Truck Series.
Busch withstood a wild sequence of three attempts at a green-white-checkered finish to win the Pocono Mountains 150 on Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway.
Scheduled for 60 laps, the race was extended to 69 laps. But Busch stretched the fuel mileage in his No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota the distance to win his first Truck Series start of the season. It also is Busch’s 43rd win in 126 career series starts, his 80th top-five and 100th top-10 finish.
“I wanted to get back out there, get my feet wet and kind of see exactly where we were at,” said Busch, who was sidelined earlier this season with a broken right leg and left foot that he suffered in a bad crash at Daytona in the season-opening Xfinity Series race. “I had fun today. Of course, you always do when you run up front and win.”
Kevin Harvick, another Sprint Cup Series regular, finished second, 1.225 seconds behind. Tyler Reddick was third and moved into the series points lead when Matt Crafton was involved in an early accident with Brad Keselowski. Canadian rookie Cameron Hayley and Austin Dillon rounded out the top five.
Last four times Busch has competed in a race, he has claimed the checkered flag.
It started with the Cup Series race at New Hampshire on July 19.
He swept the Infinity and Cup Series races last weekend at Indianapolis. Now the Truck race Saturday at Pocono belongs to him.
“It’s been unreal,” Busch said of his hot streak. “You enjoy it and try to celebrate as a team and enjoy it as a team, not just me as an individual or anything like that. Certainly, the accolades may be in my name later on for years to come. But it takes a lot of good people around you.”
The race got off to a raucous start on Lap 7 when Keselowski and Crafton got together and crashed in turn 3. In the garage area afterward, the two drivers had a heated discussion about what happened. During a television interview, Crafton accused Keselowski of intentionally taking him out in order to help Reddick, who drives for Keselowski, win the championship.
Keselowski denied the accusation.
On the Lap-10 restart, Busch, who started second, passed his young teammate and pole-sitter Erik Jones for the lead. He stayed out front for 53 of the final 60 laps, including the last 31.
Just when it seemed as if he would have smooth sailing to the finish, the caution came out on Lap 50 for debris in turn 1. Another caution flew on Lap 56 for an accident involving Wendell Chavous and Ray Black Jr. in turn 3. That set up a green-white-checkered finish.
As the field entered turn 1 four-wide on the Lap-60 restart, Jones’ truck was bumped from behind by Dillon and spun out, creating another caution.
A spin in turn 3 involving John Wes Townley and Mason Mingus on Lap 65, thwarted the second green-white-checkered finish. That caused Busch’s crew chief Jerry Baxter to become concerned since Busch had not pitted since Lap 33.
However, Busch eased Baxter’s worries by getting a good restart on the third and final green-white-checkered attempt and driving away to the victory.
“Didn’t think it would ever end,” Baxter said. “But Kyle did a great job of saving gas because it went a lap farther than I thought it would.”
Both Harvick and Reddick pitted under caution on Lap 51. They were able to work their way back to the front thanks to the late cautions, but neither had anything to challenge Busch.
“We just couldn’t keep up with the 4 (Jones) and the 51 (Busch),” Reddick said. “But we did what we needed to do. We came home with a top-three finish; we were shooting for top-five or better. The restarts at the end were hectic. But the cautions late helped us gain the track position we lost.”
Coming into the race, Reddick trailed Crafton by 14 points in the standings. But with Crafton finishing 28th because of his accident, Reddick now leads Crafton by 11 points, 479-468, after 12-of-23 races. Jones, who finished 10th, is third with 463 points.
Jones won the pole in qualifying Saturday morning at 166.202 mph.