DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Kyle Busch finally made his way to Gatorade Victory Lane in the NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona International Speedway, nipping Timothy Peters at the line by a race-record .016 seconds in another thrilling finish by the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
Busch collected three second-place finishes in his five previous starts in the season opener for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. With the win, he becomes the first driver to win in four different series at the “World Center of Racing”. His win also extends Toyota’s dominance in the 100-lap, 250-mile race, giving them their eighth-straight victory.
Busch, who led four times for 25 laps, was in second place on the last lap, the spot where he exactly wanted to be. Exiting Turn 4, Busch made a run at Peters on the outside lane and they drag raced to the checkered flag for a photo finish.
“I didn’t know that I had enough to get it done,” Busch said. “Timothy (Peters) was really fast — he could make that outside lane go. He got up to the lead there and then pulled down in front of me and the outside was still trying to get going with the 32 (Ryan Truex), but Timothy was so fast leading the top that he could get to the lead and then he was so fast leading the bottom that he could pretty much keep those guys at bay behind us.
“Coming out of (Turn) 4 I just thought, ‘Hey, I’m by myself and the 98 (Johnny Sauter) is far enough back and I think if my truck is faster than his truck then I think I can suck up on him a little bit, pull out and then see if I couldn’t get alongside of him enough to pull him back with the side draft.’ Kind of do like an old school sling shot. It didn’t really look like one, it just kind of looked like a slow motion sling shot at real speed, but it happened and got alongside of him and drug him back — and then him and the 98 had to get nose-to-tail and we already had the momentum.”
Said Peters of the finish: “He had a good run on me coming off of (Turn 4). He’s Kyle Busch. I should have done a better job of backing up to him because I knew I had a strong truck. That’s the thing that stings; I got too far out.”
Qualifying for Friday night’s race was canceled due to rain and the field was set according to their speeds in the final practice. Ben Kennedy, the great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., took the pole position in his first race on the 2.5-mile tri-oval and led the first 53 laps.
