Busch Claims Victory in Texas

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Kyle Busch won the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 from Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon to pick up his first win of the season.

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Busch led a race-high 116 laps on his way to victory lane, but he still had to hold off a hard-charging Kevin Harvick over the final 25-lap run.  Busch has three runner-up finishes this season, and he was finally able to pick up one more position to get to victory lane.

Busch said he was excited to finally get his car to victory lane.

“So cool to be in victory lane…finally this year,” Busch said.  “After Daytona we’ve just been on a roll of finishing really good, and we were really pumped and excited about that, but frustrated at the same time.”

Harvick was catching Busch in the closing laps, but he couldn’t overcome multiple pit road issues that plagued his team throughout the weekend.

Busch said he knew he had to be perfect in the closing laps to hold off Harvick.

“They were probably a tick faster overall, so I just had to do everything I could to hit all my marks,” Busch said. 

Harvick said his car didn’t handle well in traffic once he got back in the pack.

“Kyle’s car was just fast enough that I had to go a whole run to make up that ground that I needed to win,” Harvick said.  “We just didn’t turn as well in traffic.”

“We were just fortunate our Busch Light Ford was as fast as it was to cover up what was just an absolutely pathetic two days on pit road.”

Unofficial results:

1. Kyle Busch

2. Kevin Harvick

3. Jamie McMurray

4. Erik Jones

5. Ryan Blaney

6. Joey Logano

7. Kurt Busch

8. Darrell Wallace Jr.

9. Clint Bowyer

10. William Byron

11. Chase Elliott

12. Trevor Bayne

13. Ty Dillon

14. Michael McDowell

15. Chris Buescher

16. Matt DiBenedetto

17. Kasey Kahne

18. Ross Chastain

19. Cole Whitt

20. Gray Gaulding

21. Landon Cassill

22. Harrrison Rhodes

23. David Ragan

24. AJ Allmendinger

25. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

26. Austin Dillon

27. Ryan Newman

28. Alex Bowman

29. Daniel Suarez

30. Paul Menard

31. Reed Sorenson

32. Aric Almirola

33. Brad Keselowski

34. Denny Hamlin

35. Jimmie Johnson

36. Kyle Larson

37. Martin Truex Jr.

Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images