Kyle Busch all smiles in victory lane after scoring his first Xfinity win at the Glen. [Joe Jennings Photo]
By Joe Jennings
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – In the Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International on Saturday afternoon, Kyle Busch raced to victory in NASCAR Xfinity Series action in a highly competitive road-course event.
Victor Kyle Busch receives gold Zippo lighter from Zippo president. [Joe Jennings Photo]
For Busch, he won his 90th Xfinity race in 336 races and claimed his first
Series victory and seventh top-10 in 10 races at WGI. For the 2017 season, he now has four wins.
Driving the NOS Rowdy Toyota, Busch led 43 of the 82 laps around the 2.45-mile road course to finish 1.049 seconds ahead of runner-up Joey Logano and teammate Brad Keselowski, who was a split second back in third place.
But Busch’s race wasn’t easy as he spun in turn 1 while in lead on the 17th lap and four laps later, he got penalized for driving through too many pit boxes during his first of two pit stops.
And with six laps to go and holding a two second lead, a caution flag bunched the field with Keselowski and Logano in hot pursuit. Choosing the inside lane for the restart, Busch handily pulled away from them.
“I thought about it a few times and decided the inside lets you have control and if you are on outside you are vulnerable to the guy on inside,” Busch said in victory lane. “Being on inside means eight tires are better than four.”
Regarding the victory, Busch added, “It is good to get this one checked off my list. I tried to screw this one up but recovered due to a great pit call.”
Finishing fourth was Justin Allgaier with Paul Menard fifth.
Kevin Harvick, Ty Dillon, Erik Jones, Brendan Gaughan and William Byron rounding out top-10 finishers.
In points, Elliott Sadler continues to lead by 52 over Byron, and they are followed by Brennan Poole, Daniel Hemric and Cole Custer. Sadler finished 20th today.
FeaturedKyle buschNASCAR XFINITY SeriesWatkins Glen