Kyle Busch Wins in Charlotte

Toyota Drivers Tally Top 10s in Four Races 

NASCAR completed its races at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday night with the rain–delayed NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) event. Toyota drivers earned nine top 10 finishes in four races, including a win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) by Kyle Busch.   

NASCAR

Busch earned his 97th career NXS race victory at Charlotte on Monday. The series all-time winning racer led 94 laps (of 203) in the No. 54 Supra en route to his first NXS win of the season. Harrison Burton extended his streak of top-10 results to seven, dating back to the season-finale at Homestead in November 2019.

“I thought choosing the outside was the right way, but obviously it wasn’t,” said Busch following the race. “Those guys put up a whale of a fight tonight on restarts. I was really surprised by that, I guess I’m not that good at it anymore. It was pretty cool to score a win here in Charlotte as always.” 

In NASCAR Cup Series competition, three Camry racers finished in the top-10 in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 – the longest race of the year. Busch finished fourth and Martin Truex Jr. registered a sixth-place result, while Cup Series rookie Christopher Bell scored his first top-10 in the series with a ninth-place finish. Truex led 97 laps (of 405) in Sunday’s race.

“During the middle stages of the race, I thought we were really fast,” said Busch on Sunday night. “I feel like we had a great M&M’S Red, White, and Blue Camry and ran up front and got back up front from having to go to the back. But we put tires on it, and it was never the same after that from about lap 280 or 290. We were lucky to steal a fifth place finish out of it today and we’ll have to go back to work and figure out some things to make our stuff better.”

The second NCS race was pushed to Thursday evening due to weather and Denny Hamlin finished runner-up to race winner Chase Elliott.   

“The pit crew just did a phenomenal job picking up a bunch of spots,” said Hamlin following Thursday’s race. “Our whole FedEx team prepared a good car. Every time we come back to a race track for the second time, our results are really, really good. We’re making good adjustments. I had a really good Camry, just needed to be a little better in the short run there.” 

Truex also earned a top-10 result after finishing ninth on Thursday night, marking his fourth top-10 of the season. 

The NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series returned to action at Charlotte on Tuesday with Busch (second) and Austin Hill (ninth) earning top-10 finishes for Toyota. Hill continues to lead the point standings.  

“We really had a really good United Rentals Toyota Tundra,” said Hill. “We fired off there from the fifth position and took the lead on lap one. We led for a little while. As the run went on, we got a little free there. There at the end, we ended up pitting off sequence. We pitted with Kyle (Busch). Kyle was able to get up there and finish second, and I just could not get through lap traffic like he could. I was really loose in lap traffic. A lot looser then when I had the clean air. That was kind of the difference maker in trying to get back up there inside the top-five.”

Tundras combined to lead 53 laps (of 134) in the series return to racing with Hill leading 26 laps and Busch pacing the field for 25 circuits. 

What’s Next 

NASCAR action continues with two short track races at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday and Monday. The NASCAR Cup Series is set to run on Sunday, May 31 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1 and the NASCAR Xfinity Series will compete on Monday, June 1 at 7 p.m. ET on FS1.