(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
By Aaron Bearden
Post-race review and analysis from the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at ISM Raceway.
*Writer not present at the track this week. Observations are from afar.
Who Won?
Kyle Busch. The tour’s winningest driver outlasted his competitors for a comfortable win in Phoenix.
Who Claimed the Stages?
Austin Cindric and Christopher Bell.
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Lost in the smoke
For the second-straight week, Kyle Busch faced a stiff challenge from a pair of NASCAR XFINITY Series regulars.
Once again, he was able to cruise after they crashed out.
Busch entered Saturday’s race as the favorite to win — as he always is when competing with the sport’s smaller tours — but from the start of the day Christopher Bell seemed poised to contend with the veteran. Bell claimed the pole, beat out Busch in Stage 1 (though Cindric stole the stage win with pit strategy), and passed the 2015 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion to claim Stage 2 and a playoff point.
The final stage saw Busch shoot out to the lead, but Bell again rode shortly behind him – this time with another series regular in tow. Justin Allgaier methodically drove through the field to join the Joe Gibbs Racing duo, passing Bell and looking to close in on Busch for the lead.
Bell and Allgaier were keen to contend with Busch for the victory, but for the second-straight week disaster struck Busch’s closest challengers. Stephen Leicht’s No. 01 Chevrolet erupted in a plume of smoke shortly after he was lapped by Busch, trapping those behind him with no visibility.
The smoke quickly yielded a caution, but Allgaier and Bell were left to drive through it with limited sight. They each lost control of their machines, sliding up into the outside wall.
Allgaier was able to continue on, but sustained heavy damage and limped home in 14th.
Bell fared far worse, dropping out of the race outright with a crushed tail-end on his No. 20 Toyota. He was ultimately relegated to a 30th-place result.
“I saw (Leicht) blow up going into one and I figured it was going to be slick,” Bell said. “I saw the 7 (Justin Allgaier) car start sliding and I started sliding and as soon as I entered the smoke wall, I couldn’t see anything. I lost my bearings of where I was and the next thing you know, I was in the wall.
“Frustrating and very disappointing because our Rheem Supra was extremely strong.”
With his strongest competition gone, Busch cruised through the final stage. He led 100 of the final 101 laps, and took the checkered flag by 3.025 seconds.
The win was standard for Busch – his second in a row, 94th in Xfinity Series competition and 198th overall. The result led to the typical slew of complaints about the Nevadan and other Cup Series stars running with the minor tours, but Busch shrugged it off after the race.
“There’s a lot of talk and all that sort of stuff, but hey, if I’m allowed to enter a race, I’m going to enter a race,” he said. “I’m going to go out there and race and I’m going to go out there and try to win. If I win, we win. If not, we’ve got to go again the next time.”
But while he was happy to celebrate the win, Busch was quick to acknowledge that his JGR teammate was in position to challenge him for the overall victory.
“Christopher (Bell) was certainly going to give me a run for my money today,” he said.
Bell will get three more chances to supplant Busch in 2019.
Ryan’s Redemption
He didn’t manage to challenge Busch for the win, but three seconds behind the veteran at the finish was another driver whose result felt like a victory.
Ryan Truex bounced back from an early drop through the field to rise to second place at the end of Saturday’s race, tying his career-best performance in his first race with JR Motorsports.
A two-time K&N Pro Series East champion, the younger brother of Martin Truex Jr. has spent the majority of his career bouncing from one organization to the next in NASCAR’s top three tours.
At 26 years old, Truex has competed in the Cup Series with BK Racing, helped bring Truck Series team Hattori Racing to prominence in 2017 prior to Brett Moffitt’s championship run with the organization last year, and put together a consistent 2018 campaign with Kaulig Racing.
Ever the odd one out, Truex found himself at a crossroads entering 2019 when Kaulig Racing chose to go in a different direction. Rather than look for a full-time ride, Truex took a gamble on himself similar to recent Cup Series graduate Ryan Preece and fellow Xfinity Series part-timer and accepted a part-time schedule with JR Motorsports. He’s one of four drivers sharing the team’s No. 8 Chevrolet, joining ARCA Menards Series graduate Zane Smith, fellow castaway Jeb Burton and former series regular Spencer Gallagher.
Saturday was Truex’s only chance to shine during the spring months, with his next start not slated until Kentucky Speedway in July.
He didn’t achieve the ultimate goal of pulling into victory lane at race’s end. But in tying the best result of his career, the New Jersey native left Phoenix with much to be proud of.
“Absolutely, absolutely (I feel validation from this),” he told NASCAR.com. “It’s one thing to say you can do it. It’s one thing for everybody to think you can do it. But to go out and prove it feels really good.”
What a day. Thank you for the opportunity @JRMotorsports. @taylorcmoyer and the boys worked hard and we had something for em by the end. Great to see all the fan support! #goryan
— Ryan Truex (@Ryan_Truex) March 10, 2019
Other Notes
- Tyler Reddick was quiet by the strong standards he set in the previous two weeks at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but with a third-place run the Richard Childress Racing star surged to the top of the Xfinity Series point standings leaving Phoenix.
- Ryan Sieg continues to make the most of every opportunity this season. Driving for his own family team, Sieg has already secured as many top-10s (3) as he had in any prior Xfinity Series season. The 2016 playoff contender’s 7.75 average finish through four starts is 16.5 positions better than he’d averaged at this point last year, allowing Sieg to rise inside of the top 10 in the standings.
- Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer and Chase Briscoe were each fast in the closing run to the finish, rising from the mid-pack to secure finishes of fourth and sixth, respectively. But the pair each left ISM Raceway regretting late mistakes – Custer dropping back on the final restart, and Briscoe having to bounce back from a pit road speeding penalty that mired him in the pack.
- Michael Annett’s strong start to 2019 continued in Phoenix. The Daytona International Speedway winner scored his third top-10 in four starts, matching his top 10 total from the entirety of 2018 in just four starts.
- Noah Gragson has been quiet to start the 2019 season, but he’s proven consistent. The rookie has finished 11th or better in each start thus far, keeping himself in a playoff position through the first four races. He hoped to run better after starting strong in Phoenix, but faded over the final stage.
- Brandon Brown has ran largely sponsor-free thus far, but his 2019 is off to an incredible start. The Virginian has averaged a finish of 15.75 through four races, more than a spot better than his career-best result (17th) entering the year.
- A Hill finished 20th on Saturday, but it probably wasn’t the one you expected. Tyler Hill, Timmy Hill’s brother, scored his first top-20 in just his second Xfinity Series start – a run that made his brother (and spotter) proud.
