BRISTOL, TENN. (AP) - Kyle Busch won his third straight NASCAR Trucks race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Wednesday night.
Busch, who won the pole position for the O’Reilly 200, was relegated to a 35th at the start because of an engine change after qualifying. It took him only 91 laps to power his way from the back of the field to the race lead.
The No. 18 Toyota driver then appeared to be cruising until a seven-truck crash on lap 198, put the race into overtime and a green-white checkered restart.
With his fuel level low, Busch was able to hold off Aric Almirola for his 19th Truck Series victory in 77 career starts.
“It ran out of fuel on the second-to-last restart and it ran out on the last restart,” Busch said. “I was worried.”
Behind the two Toyotas was Ron Hornaday Jr. in third in a Chevrolet and Mike Skinner fourth in a Toyota.
Busch sliced his way through the field, passing seven cars on the first lap and moving up to 17th by lap 17. By lap 56, he had moved to second place and 35 laps later, he inherited the lead from Skinner who made a pit stop.
It was Busch’s seventh Bristol win overall with three wins in the Sprint Cup Series and one win in the Nationwide Series.
Points leader Todd Bodine, who came into Wednesday’s race looking for a third straight victory, finished fifth.
Soon after Busch crossed the finish line, Matt Crafton and Austin Dillon crashed at the exit of turn four, leading to a post-race confrontation between the two drivers’ crews.
“They were upset,” said Crafton, who finished 10th. “I can understand why they’d be upset. The last thing I wanted to do was to wreck him.”
Dillon, who finished 17th, was still upset minutes after the accident.
“Coming off the corner, he kept pushing me and pushing me. I couldn’t save it,” Dillon said. “There was no need to tear up a bunch of trucks like that.”
Sprint Cup Series star Ryan Newman passed seven-time Modified champion Mike Stefanik with 20 laps to go to win a 150-lap race for the NASCAR Modified Series earlier in the evening.
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