NASCAR
King of the Truck Series Reigns Supreme Again in Atlanta
HAMPTON, Ga. – Making his first Truck Series start on the new Atlanta Motor Speedway and with Spire Motorsports, Kyle Busch parks the No. 7 Chevrolet in victory lane. As is typical for Busch in the Truck Series, he led often and took an apparent walk off win. A few oddities did define this Atlanta race however, even with the usual outcome.
The dominant truck of the day early on was defending winner Christian Eckes. The Napa Auto Parts No. 19 Chevrolet started fifth and won Stage 1. Late in this opening run however is when a terminal problem developed on the McAnally-Hilgemann truck. Eckes reported that he was losing brakes, and soon saw fluid on his floor. Following the stage win, Eckes pulled into the garage and was done for the day.
Stage 2 would be won by Kyle Busch under caution, but it was a back-and-forth affair with Tyler Ankrum. The other McAnally truck would spend a race-high 46 laps out front, but had to settle for second in Stage 2.
Amazingly, Stage 3 did not have any on-track incidents to slow the field. Rather, three separate debris cautions did keep the pack tight together. One of these yellows was for the roof flying off of Bayley Currey’s truck. Suffice to say, the No. 41 was done early after being turned into a convertible. A few of the Niece trucks did show windshield buckling while at speed.
Another new contender soon emerged in Stage 3–Grant Enfinger. The No. 9 Chevrolet held the lead over both Busch and Ankrum in the closing laps, only to suffer a flat tire late. This exchange handed the lead back to Busch with seven laps remaining, and nobody could get by the 7.
“You’re relying on help, right?” Busch said. “You got to have guys behind you that are willing to work with you, and Majeski was that guy today for me. At the end we had a bunch of Spire teammates out there who were great to work with too. The 77 was good, the 2 was good. I wanted to get us all on the bottom that time, and we did. We drove right up to the front, and I was going to try and control both lanes. As soon as I pulled out to the top, the bottom went away.”
“Thanks to Chevrolet, appreciate Spire, Group 1001, everyone who has been a part of this organization from the very start to what we have today. It’s a lot of fun. Love Rowdy Nation, appreciate seeing all of the 8 stuff out there. Lot of yellow and black out there, so that’s good, appreciate it.”
Behind Busch, the top-five were: Ty Majeski, Corey Heim, Taylor Gray, and Nick Sanchez. The rest of the top-10 were rounded out by: Kaden Honeycutt, Tyler Ankrum, Rajah Caruth, Daniel Dye, and Dean Thompson. Hear from some of these drivers below.
The No. 7 was very fitting for Busch today, taking his seventh win in a Truck at Atlanta. Overall this marks career victory number 65 for Busch, further extending his all-time record. Busch will have four more Truck Series starts in 2024, with the next one being at Las Vegas on Friday.
The Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 will go green Friday at 9 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Busch will be chasing another win on his home track and back-to-back in this event.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Peter Stratta/TSJSports
