Kyle Busch makes it two wins in a row

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[April 11, 2016]  FORT WORTH, Texas -- Kyle Busch claimed his second straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win on Saturday night when he took the checkered flag in the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

"It's pretty darn good. I'll tell you that," Busch said. "I've got a great wife, a great son, and I'm having a blast, living the dream with (crew chief Adam Stevens) and these guys, and Joe (Gibbs, car owner) and J.D. (Gibbs, Joe Gibbs Racing co-chairman), thinking about you guys back and home, and of course, Coy (Gibbs, JGR COO) is here with us. Everybody back at the shop has been building great race cars; they've been doing a great job for us."

Busch grabbed his first and only lead of the race when he got by Martin Truex Jr. on a restart after a caution that came out with 40 laps to go because of a multi-car crash that started with a spin by Ty Dillon and involved nearly 10 cars.

"I know the 78 (Truex), we just out-tired him there at the end," Busch said. "Just, overall, a great night for JGR and Toyota."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second after passing Joey Logano with nine laps to go, relegating Logano to third. Earnhardt's Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Chase Elliott finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

"We got a little behind and got caught on pit road on that one caution," Earnhardt said. "We had a fast car, probably good enough to win. Martin probably had the best car, but the best car doesn't always win. Kyle did a great job on the outside on that last restart. Truex's tires were worse than I thought.

"We finished up there where we should have. We need a win. We'd love a win. I know our fans want a win really bad. Trust me, man, we're all working really hard and running great every week. Hopefully, that's fun for everyone to watch. I had a blast inside the car -- a lot of sliding around sideways and good, hard racing. We'll go to the next one, I guess, and try again."

After a combined dominant performance by Carl Edwards and Marin Truex Jr., Edwards dropped out of contention when he fell off the pace and made an unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel soon after a restart that followed a caution on Lap 211.

Truex continued to run up front, but staying out during two late cautions resulted in a backslide to sixth by the finish. Edwards finished seventh.

"We just ran out of tires, you know," Truex said. "Made it through (turns) one and two side-by-side; got to three and just didn't have the grip. Then, we fell back because we were sliding around. Everybody had new tires. We ran under caution for a long time; they keep building air pressure and losing grip.

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"Pretty big disadvantage, but can't say enough about the guys for the race car they brought here and the weekend we had. It hurts. It's happened a few times to me here. Hurts a little bit, but we'll get over it and we'll move one and we'll take the positives out of it tonight."

Truex led a race-high 141 laps and Edwards led 124 laps of the 334-lap race.

Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick finished eighth through 10th, respectively.

Edwards was the leader at the halfway point with Truex and Earnhardt second and third.

Edwards retook the lead from Truex by getting off pit road first during a Lap 135 caution for debris.

Truex took the lead from Edwards on lap 59 and pulled away from the field. By the time drivers began cycling through green-flag stops on lap 109, Truex had a seven-second cushion on Earnhardt -- the second-place driver at the time.

After a nearly two-hour rain delay and the ensuing track-drying efforts, Edwards started on the pole with Logano next to him on the front row.

Edwards led throughout the first 58 laps before being overtaken by Truex on lap 59.

NOTES: Jimmie Johnson won the last three Sprint Cup Series races at Texas Motor Speedway heading into Saturday. In all, he has six wins at TMS, the most of any driver. ... Saturday's race was the first Sprint Cup event at Texas Motor Speedway without Jeff Gordon. Before his retirement at the end of the 2015 season, Gordon was the only driver who competed in all Cup races at TMS. ... Chase Elliott had to drop to the back at the start of the race because of a transmission change. ... Kyle Busch won after leading 150 laps of the 200-lap NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Texas on Friday night.

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