Kyle Busch Motorsports dominated the UNOH 225 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta on Thursday night. The two KBM trucks, the No. 51 Toyota of team owner Kyle Busch and the No. 54 of Darrell Wallace Jr. started first and second, and in the end, finished first and second, giving the team its first ever one-two finish. Busch won the race after leading 91 of the 150 laps that made up the race, while Wallace led most of the other laps on his way to a runner-up showing.
“It was a great night,” Busch said. “I can’t say enough about everyone here at KBM and everyone at Dollar General, Toyota, TRD, JGR Engines and all those people that make it happen for us. It’s been pretty awesome to race this year in the Camping World Truck Seris and been really competitive this year.”
The win was Busch’s fifth in Camping World Truck Series competition in 2014 in only five starts. It was also the 10th-straight win in the series for Toyota.
The No. 29 Brad Keselowski Racing Ford of Ryan Blaney finished third, Timothy Peters was fourth, and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-five.
“We were okay,” Keselowski said. “We were probably a second or third-place truck. We didn’t have anything for the No. 51.”
Wallace was the mainstay at the front early in the early laps after taking the lead from pole sitter Busch on lap two and leading until Busch retook the lead on lap 36.
Busch then lost the lead because of varying pit strategies during the fourth caution of the race that came out on lap 76. Keselowski had made his way into the top-five after starting in the back and then stayed out during the caution to restart in the lead. With several other drivers taking only two tires, Busch was relegated to eighth for the restart.
It didn’t take Busch long to get back to the front, though, he quickly got back up to third on the restart and then took second from Blaney a few laps later. Soon, he took the lead from Keselowski and pulled away to lead the remainder of the race.
Keselowski was able to keep his truck in the top-three on older tires, but when the next caution came out on lap 99, he left his pit stall with a wrench still attached to his truck, necessitating a return trip to pit road.
Busch was still up front, with Blaney in second and Wallace in third, as Keselowski worked his way back toward the front. The top-three pulled away from the rest of the field as Ron Hornaday struggled to hold on to the fourth spot in a battle with Peters and Matt Crafton.
As Hornaday, Crafton and Peters battled for the fourth and fifth positions, Keselowski closed. Keselowski moved into fourth with just under 30 laps remaining, but was 12 seconds behind Busch and the lead.
Keselowski then gave back the positions gained to head down pit road for tires during the final yellow flag of the race with 11 laps to go. Meanwhile, Busch restarted with the lead, and Wallace quickly grabbed second from Blaney.
“We were so equal, whoever was in front of who was going to get the position,” Blaney said of losing second to Wallace on the final restart.”
At first, Wallace was able to challenge his boss for the top spot, but then Busch pulled away, as he had every restart before.
“He’s tough every race,” Wallace said of Busch. “You’ve just got to learn from it, and that’s what we try to do.”
Crafton finished sixth, Austin Dillon was seventh, Hornaday eighth, Johnny Sauter was ninth, and Ben Kennedy finished 10th.