Kyle Busch Dominates Truck Series Race at Las Vegas

Kyle Busch kicked off his hometown tripleheader in Las Vegas with a win, driving his No. 51 Chevrolet Silverado, KBM’s first win as a Chevrolet organization. Busch led 84 of the 134 laps in the Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200, despite a couple of shaky moments while trying to drive through traffic. Busch also continued to grow his series record for most wins all-time at 63, this was also his fourth win in the truck series at Las Vegas.

Busch took the lead on a restart on lap 66 and never looked back, even extending his lead to seven seconds at one point. 

“There were a couple of dicey moments in traffic-not too bad-but I would have loved to have raced with Zane,” said Busch after the race, as he was also met with plenty of cheers just like his Cup win five days prior at Auto Club. “They kind of got off strategy where we were able to cycle up, and we got clean air for most of the start of that last run.

“He came through the field and got to second, and we kind of maintained. If we’d have been able to race it out, it would have been a hell of a show. But all in all, just a great night here, to be able to win in Las Vegas again-and you’ve got to win the first to be able to win all three. Right?”

Daytona winner Zane Smith finished in second,  leading a total of eight laps and winning Stage 1. Ben Rhodes finished third, Corey Heim fourth, and Ty Majeski was fifth. Christian Eckes was sixth after nearly wrecking earlier on while contending for the lead, Carson Hocevar was seventh as he went on to win Stage 2, then Chase Purdy, Grant Enfinger, and rookie Jake Garcia rounded out the top ten.

The race took place on Friday, March 3rd, which happened to be Jake Garcia’s 18^th birthday, as he was officially able to run on all tracks and run the full season in the Craftsman Truck Series for Bill McAnally. It was an impressive result for his first truck race on a 1.5-mile track. To put things into perspective about Friday night’s race, Jake Garcia was born in 2005, the same year that race winner Kyle Busch was running his rookie season in the NASCAR Cup Series (then named the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series). 

Hailie Deegan showed speed in a good qualifying run, starting the race in fifth but was involved in a wreck on lap 60 as she got into a wreck with John Hunter Nemechek on the backstretch, taking her out of the race. 

Who to Watch

Chase Purdy, who is driving the full season with Kyle Busch Motorsports, ran well for most of the race and got a top-ten finish. Despite the 17^th place finish at Daytona, Purdy has a solid start to the season and the way things are looking for Kyle Busch, could Purdy have a breakout season in 2023? Could he possibly make the playoffs with KBM? This is certainly his biggest opportunity yet. He will be one to watch in the coming weeks to see if KBM was the team he needed in order to find success.

The next Craftsman Truck Series is on Saturday, March 18^th at Atlanta Motor Speedway.