Kyle Busch celebrates in victory lane after winning Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Pocono Raceway. Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Kyle Busch earned the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win on Saturday at Pocono Raceway with a last lap pass.
The win gave his Kyle Busch Motorsports team its milestone 100th series victory.
Busch made the pass on Marietta, Georgia’s Corey Heim in turn 2 of the 2.5-mile track, got around cleanly and motored off to a .604-second win. It marks the second win of the year in five truck starts for Busch.
“It’s pretty cool, we’ve been around for a long time, but it’s been fun,” said Busch, who contributed 64 of those 100 wins himself and now has three at Pocono.
“A great ride. Obviously, this (Chevrolet) Silvarado today was really really fast, just mired in traffic. Couldn’t find a way to make a clean move so had to make a little bit of a racey one, a little bit of a dicey one there at the end getting into two. Heim ran a great race. We just needed this hundredth win to get it over with.”
“Really proud of the guys and everybody at KBM,” he said, adding, “It’s a monumental day, a century mark of being able to win a hundred truck races. We’re a small team, just one that performs in the truck series.”
Eighteen drivers contributed to that grand win total for Kyle Busch Motorsports – including Heim, who finished runner-up to his former boss on Saturday after leading a race best 27 of the 60 laps.
“Just unreal,’’ said Heim, who holds a 42-point lead over Zane Smith atop the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship heading into the regular season finale next week at Richmond Raceway.
“I felt like I did everything right,” continued Heim. “Seemed like we had about five laps in the truck before it started tightened up really bad on me. I really did get the run I wanted out of 1 and knew his straightaway speed was really good. I was a little upset initially but realistically, I would have done the exact same thing. Heat of the moment deal there.
“Looking back on it, I’ve just got a lot of respect for Kyle. I raced for him for two years and he was really good to me and raced me with respect today. He’s a hard racer and didn’t wreck us for the win and I probably would have done the same thing. Really sucks, really thought we had it there.”
Taylor Gray finished a career best third place with another NASCAR Cup Series full-timer, Christopher Bell, in fourth place and Grant Enfinger in fifth.
Ty Majeski, Christian Eckes, Dean Thompson, Ben Rhodes, and Matt DiBenedetto rounded out the top 10.
It was Heim’s closest championship challenger that dominated early at Pocono. Zane Smith, whose 19 laps led was second only to Heim, won both stages, giving him bonus points to seemingly narrow the championship gap.
That pit strategy, however, left him vulnerable in the rear of the field during that final stage and he was among 10 cars involved in an incident with eight laps remaining that brought out a 13-minute red flag period.
Smith’s truck was too damaged to finish the race, as was another championship hopeful, Stewart Friesen. The reigning series champion now shows up at Richmond a longshot to claim the regular season trophy, but he is one of four drivers with two wins on the season – second best to Heim’s three victories.
Pole winner Nick Sanchez was involved in an accident just prior to the “big one” and took out his fellow front row starter and rookie, Monroe, Georgia’s Jake Garcia.
Heading into the Richmond regular season finale, three-time former series champion Matt Crafton holds an eight-point advantage over Friesen for that final 10th place Playoff transfer spot.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Pocono Raceway – Long Pond, PA
CRC Brakleen 150 – July 22, 2023
1. (12) Kyle Busch(i), Chevrolet, 60.
2. (9) Corey Heim, Toyota, 60.
3. (11) Taylor Gray #, Toyota, 60.
4. (14) Christopher Bell(i), Toyota, 60.
5. (3) Grant Enfinger, Chevrolet, 60.
6. (34) Ty Majeski, Ford, 60.
7. (35) Christian Eckes, Chevrolet, 60.
8. (33) Dean Thompson, Toyota, 60.
9. (22) Ben Rhodes, Ford, 60.
10. (8) Matt DiBenedetto, Chevrolet, 60.
11. (4) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 60.
12. (18) Tyler Ankrum, Toyota, 60.
13. (21) Hailie Deegan, Ford, 60.
14. (25) Matt Crafton, Ford, 60.
15. (26) Colby Howard, Chevrolet, 60.
16. (7) Rajah Caruth #, Chevrolet, 60.
17. (20) Daniel Dye #, Chevrolet, 60.
18. (10) Chase Purdy, Chevrolet, 60.
19. (1) Nick Sanchez #, Chevrolet, 60.
20. (17) Kaden Honeycutt, Chevrolet, 60.
21. (36) Tyler Hill, Toyota, 60.
22. (24) Parker Kligerman(i), Chevrolet, 60.
23. (31) Cory Roper, Ford, 60.
24. (32) Stephen Mallozzi, Ford, 60.
25. (30) Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 60.
26. (29) Josh Reaume, Ford, 60.
27. (27) Lawless Alan, Chevrolet, 60.
28. (19) Stefan Parsons(i), Chevrolet, 60.
29. (28) Bret Holmes #, Chevrolet, 60.
30. (23) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 52.
31. (15) Kaz Grala(i), Toyota, Accident, 51.
32. (16) Stewart Friesen, Toyota, Accident, 51.
33. (5) Austin Hill(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 51.
34. (6) Zane Smith, Ford, Accident, 51.
35. (2) Jake Garcia #, Chevrolet, Accident, 45.
36. (13) Tanner Gray, Toyota, Accident, 3.
Average Speed: 108.434 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 23 Mins, 0 Secs. Margin of Victory: .604 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 5 for 20 laps.
Lead Changes: 5 among 4 drivers.
Lap Leaders: N. Sanchez # 1-7;Z. Smith 8-20;K. Busch(i) 21-26;Z. Smith 27-32;C. Heim 33-59;K. Busch(i) 60.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Corey Heim 1 time for 27 laps; Zane Smith 2 times for 19 laps; Kyle Busch(i) 2 times for 7 laps; Nick Sanchez # 1 time for 7 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 38,2,25,51,7,35,11,23,52,17
Stage #2 Top Ten: 38,52,2,25,23,99,16,24,9,88
Playoff Standings: 1. Corey Heim – 569 (2 Wins); 2. Zane Smith – 527 (1 Wins); 3. Grant Enfinger – 510 (2 Wins); 4. Christian Eckes – 480 (2 Wins); 5. Carson Hocevar – 444 (2 Wins); 6. Ben Rhodes – 510 (1 Win); 7. Ty Majeski – 510; 8. Matt DiBenedetto – 431; 9. Nick Sanchez – 421; 10. Matt Crafton – 409.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
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