Kyle Busch and Austin Hill win on Saturday at Atlanta

This late February weekend marked the second race of the season for both the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series. As for the second weekend in a row, NASCAR goes high-speed pack racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Kyle Busch ran his first of five scheduled truck races with Spire Motorsports, the team he sold Kyle Busch Motorsports to at the end of 2023, and it was not a disappointment as he went on to score his 65th career win. Busch took the lead from Grant Enfinger on lap 129 of 135 and would hold off Ty Majeski and Corey Heim on his way to victory lane. Taylor Gray and Daytona winner Nick Sanchez would finish behind them in fourth and fifth.

“I actually got a run on the 9 truck (Grant Enfinger) down the backstretch,” Busch said after the race. “He must have been going flat down the backstretch and slowing down because it gave me. It sucked me up right to him. Then he got loose in the corner. I got loose in the corner. We all checked up trying not to crash.”

“Thankfully, we didn’t. I thought that was a big moment. But then we got the lead right there, and after that, it was about trying to protect it. Majeski was a bit of a wingman today. Appreciate him and the history we’ve had together growing up racing late models with him a lot in Wisconsin and around those parts.”

“That was a lot of fun. Great to get Chevrolet to Victory Lane.”

This win also marked Kyle Busch’s 230th win across all three NASCAR National Series (Cup, Xfinity, and Trucks). Tyler Ankrum looked strong during the race, as he led a race-high 46 laps, but ended up in 7th after he was passed by Grant Enfinger late in the race. Busch led for 33 laps, while Enfinger led for 23. Christian Eckes looked strong early in the race after leading for 20 laps and winning stage 1, but would fall out of the race after suffering braking issues, which made him unable to correctly stop in his pit box.

There was also an odd caution when of portion of the roof flew off the No. 41 truck of Bayley Currey. His team said a piece of debris had hit the top of the truck, which eventually caused this bizarre situation. Layne Riggs also had his position disqualified after failing post-race inspection because of missing windshield fasteners. The Truck Series heads next to Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday, March 1st, green flag will be at 9 pm EST.

Next up was the NASCAR Xfinity Series race and in the last couple of years, it has been established that Austin Hill is the biggest threat on any superspeedway race. That continued on Saturday as Hill picked up where he left off on his Daytona win, going 2-for-2 in 2024 so far.

His teammate, Jesse Love, led for most of the race and started from the pole just like he did at Daytona. But in a two-lap overtime restart, Love had run out of fuel as well as other competitors, causing Hill to run away with the lead and win the race. Chandler Smith finished second and Shane van Gisbergen finished third with a solid start to his first full season in NASCAR.

“I was really thinking we were down and out,” Hill said. “I was thinking the 2 (Love) was going to go get ’em, and hey, if I can’t win, let my teammate win. We were riding there in fourth or fifth, whatever it was, I was saving fuel.”

Jesse Love led 157 of the 169 laps, sweeping both stages as he was on his way to the win until Ryan Sieg ran out of fuel and came to a stop on the apron with 3 laps to go. This led to the overtime restart which also led to some leaders running out of fuel.

“It’s almost comical,” Love said after the race. “Man, I’m just so damn proud of everybody on this Whelen car. It just wasn’t meant to be. I always try to take responsibility for everything, so as a driver I should have saved more fuel. Man, I just didn’t want anybody to catch me off-guard. I thought I saved a ton. Man, that overtime or that caution just lasted forever.”

Shane van Gisbergen, who had finished third, was glad that he didn’t run into the fuel problem.

“It’s just good to get a result and have a clean car, especially after last week (at Daytona) when I got involved in so much stuff. So, to have a clean race, not make too many mistakes, and complete every lap, we learned a lot. It was awesome.”

Sheldon Creed finished fourth while Parker Retzlaff finished in fifth. The Xfinity Series also heads next to Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 5th at 5 pm EST.