|
 "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.
[to top of second column] |
"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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