Getty Kyle Busch has won at a road course for the first time in his Truck Series career.
Kyle Busch Motorsports driver-owner Kyle Busch has achieved a massive amount of success in the Camping World Truck Series, but there was one style of track where he remained winless. He checked off this goal by winning the road course race at Sonoma Raceway on June 11.
Busch dealt with some early issues at Sonoma Raceway, especially during practice. He entered the race with some concerns about his ability to contend for a win, but his crew made enough changes to get the truck where it needed to be. Busch then led a race-high 45 laps and held off championship contender Zane Smith on the final two laps.
Rowdy said SEE YA! 💨💨💨
This Truck Series win at Sonoma Raceway was Busch’s first on a road course, and it took place in only his second-ever road course start. He took on this style of track for the first time at Circuit of the Americas on March 26, and he finished third after a late incident involving Alex Bowman and Stewart Friesen.
Busch was not able to win his first-ever Truck Series race on a road course due to this late incident. However, he took care of business in his final start of the 2022 Truck Series season and reached Victory Lane in the purple Yahoo Toyota Tundra.
ALL the latest NASCAR news straight to your inbox! Subscribe to the Heavy on NASCAR newsletter here!
Sign up for the Heavy on NASCAR Newsletter!
Busch Avoided Repeating History by Reaching Victory Lane
GettyKyle Busch kept a winning streak alive at Sonoma.
The win was important for several reasons. The first is that Busch has the goal of reaching 100 career wins in the Truck Series. The other is that it prevented him from repeating a piece of history that he doesn’t like.
Busch is currently on a streak of 10 consecutive seasons with a win. The last time he didn’t reach Victory Lane in the Camping World Truck Series was 2012 when he made three starts and posted three top-five finishes. He had runner-ups at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway. His other start resulted in a fourth-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway.
“It’s important,” Busch said about keeping his winning streak alive during his post-race interview with FOX Sports’ Jamie Little. “Certainly would have loved to have gotten a win in [2012]. I look back at that as a miss. … Yes, being able to keep that tradition, and we wanted to do that at some of the new tracks we went to this year with COTA and here at Sonoma. Real proud of that.”
Securing the win at Sonoma was very important based on the schedule. Busch is only allowed to make five Truck Series starts each season due to being a veteran Cup Series driver on a full-time schedule, and he had already made four. The trip to California was his final opportunity to check off this goal and keep the streak alive.
Another Track Style Remains for Busch
With the win at Sonoma Raceway, Busch has checked off another important career goal. He has now won Truck Series races at Superspeedways, intermediates, short tracks, and a road course.
These are the main track styles on the Truck Series schedule, but there is another that Busch could take on for the first time in 2023. He could pursue a win at one of the dirt tracks on the schedule after making no previous starts in the Truck Series.
The Truck Series regulars have competed at multiple dirt tracks in some of the recent seasons. They took on Eldora from 2013 to 2019. In 2021, they took on both the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track and Knoxville Raceway for the first time. These two tracks then returned for the 2022 season.
READ NEXT: Bobby Labonte Reveals Hopes for Future Booth Appearances
Comments
Kyle Busch Just Checked off Another Huge NASCAR Goal