By: Adam Tropper
LONG POND, P.A. -- Kyle Busch didn't dominate the Craftsman Truck Series race like he has so many times in the past. However, he led the only lap that matters. In a last lap pass over Corey Heim, made sure to give the fans some excitement . This win marks the 100th victory for Kyle Busch Motorsports, which has been operating since the 2010 season.
While the race was fairly calm the first two stages, there were two significant wrecks in stage 3. On lap 45 of 60, Nick Sanchez and Jake Garcia (both of whom started on the front row) crashed into turn 1. Garcia suffered race-ending damages as a result.
On lap 52, "the big one" happened. A multi-car wreck took Stewart Friesen, Carson Hocevar, Zane Smith, Parker Kligerman, and others brought out the red flag.
On the following restart Heim, who previously drove for Busch, looked to be in control, initially driving away. However, "Rowdy" had other plans. After 3 laps of staying behind Heim in the draft and slowly reeling him in, Busch made a calculated and aggressive move in the tunnel turn to take the lead, making it stick and pulling away for the victory, the 100th in the history of Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Taylor Gray placed an impressive third, while Christopher Bell and Grant Enfinger rounded out the top five. For some of the other series regulars, there were playoff implications. Matt Crafton gained some points on the playoff cutline over Friesen by virtue of avoiding the wreck on lap 52. Unfortunately for Tanner Gray, a hard hit suffered on lap 4 thrusts him into essentially a must-win situation with only one race to go in the regular season.
The Craftsman Truck Series will be back in action for their regular season finale next weekend at Richmond Raceway. The race will air next Saturday, July 29th, at 7:30 p.m. on FS1.
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