HAMPTON, Ga. — After a bunch of close calls at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch has found the winning touch in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Busch cruised to his second straight Atlanta victory in the second-tier series Saturday. With a helping hand from lapped cars, the pole-winner was able to hold off fellow Cup driver Brad Keselowski by 0.606 seconds.
No one else was within 2 seconds of the front.
Before the 2016 race, Busch had five runner-up finishes, plus third- and fourth-place showings on the 1.54-mile trioval.
"It took so long to get here to begin with," Busch said in Victory Lane. "Now we’ve won two in a row. That feels so good."
Keselowski won the first 40-lap stage, while Kevin Harvick took the next 40-lap phase. But it was Busch was leading at the end — a promising start to a busy weekend in Atlanta, where he was competing in all three of NASCAR’s top series.
After celebrating with his team and making a brief stop in the media centre, he hustled back to pit road for the Truck Series race.
On Sunday, Busch will start on the inside of the second row in the Monster Energy Cup race.
"It’s kind of a refresher course each and every year to run Saturday and get what I need to know on Sunday," he said. "I learned a couple of things that I might’ve forgotten about. Hopefully I can use some of those things in my Cup car."
Harvick led 64 laps — more than any driver — but got shuffled back to fourth at the finish. He will start from the pole in the Cup race.
Another Cup regular, Kyle Larson, was third.
Lapped cars prevented Keselowski from mounting a serious challenge to Busch in the closing laps.
"It’s always a game of cat and mouse, but sometimes it feels like chicken," Keselowski said. "I kept losing one or two car lengths every time I’d go through traffic."
Elliott Sadler was the top-finishing Xfinity Series regular in fifth place, followed by fellow series drivers Darrell Wallace Jr. and William Byron.
It was an impressive run by the 19-year-old Byron, whose radio did not work properly. He was able to hear his crew but wasn’t able to speak with them, forcing the team to work out a system where he signalled them coming into the pits to indicate what adjustments he needed.
"I would stay on the yellow line a certain way," Byron said. "It was actually pretty seamless. But hopefully I don’t have that issue next week.’
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