NASCAR Cup Series: 2018 Overton’s 400 results – Kyle Busch wins a thriller
By Asher Fair
Kyle Busch won for the fifth time through 17 races in the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season in a thrilling Overton’s 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.
In the 17th race of the 36-race 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch earned his fifth victory of the year and the 48th victory of his Cup Series career in thrilling fashion.
Busch won the 2018 Overton’s 400 at the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois by 1.875 seconds in his #18 Toyota over Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson, who was the race’s highest finishing Chevrolet driver in second place. Busch started the race in 16th.
While a 1.875-second winning margin isn’t a super small margin, the finish of the race was really much closer than that.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick was the highest finishing Ford driver of the race. He finished in third place in his #4 Ford.
Busch led 59 of the race’s 267 laps, and those 59 laps were the race’s final 59 laps. While it looked like he would seal the victory several times over the course of those 59 laps, Larson made several late charges.
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After Larson made a slight mistake with only a few laps to go in the race, Busch began to pull away, and it appeared as though he would go on to win the race handily. However, he caught lapped traffic and Larson was able to reel him in.
On the final lap of the race, Larson made a move to the inside of Busch heading into turn one. Larson got ahead of him, but Busch had more momentum coming off of turn two. The drivers made contact and Busch brushed the wall.
Larson attempted to pass Busch on the inside of the backs straightaway, and the two continued to rub. Once Larson cleared Busch in turn three, Busch bumped him from behind and sent him spinning. Meanwhile, Busch got loose and hit the turn four wall. With a flat front right tire, he took the checkered flag ahead of the rest of the field, Larson still managed to finish in second place.
Here is a video of this thrilling finish.
The race featured a total of 24 lead changes among 10 drivers. Aside of Busch, a total of nine drivers led at least one lap of the race. Those drivers were Larson, Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola and Austin Dillon. Race polesitter Paul Menard did not lead any laps.
Almirola led more laps than anybody else in the field with 70 laps led. He won stage one and Harvick won stage two.
The race also featured a total of five caution flag periods for 23 laps. Of those five caution flag periods, three took place as a result of on-track incidents and two took place as a result of the endings of stages one and two. Of the 39 drivers who started the race, a total of 38 finished it. Only Timmy Hill failed to finish the race, as he completed only 185 laps and had an oil cooler issue.
Of the 38 drivers who finished the race, a total of 15 finished it on the lead lap.
Here are the full race results of the 2018 Overton’s 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.
| Rank | Driver | Car, Team, Manufacturer |
| 1 | Kyle Busch | #18, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota |
| 2 | Kyle Larson | #42, Chip Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet |
| 3 | Kevin Harvick | #4, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford |
| 4 | Martin Truex Jr. | #78, Furniture Row Racing, Toyota |
| 5 | Clint Bowyer | #14, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford |
| 6 | Erik Jones | #20, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota |
| 7 | Denny Hamlin | #11, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota |
| 8 | Joey Logano | #22, Team Penske, Ford |
| 9 | Brad Keselowski | #2, Team Penske, Ford |
| 10 | Alex Bowman | #88, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 11 | Daniel Suarez | #19, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota |
| 12 | Jamie McMurray | #1, Chip Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet |
| 13 | Paul Menard | #21, Wood Brothers Racing, Ford |
| 14 | Jimmie Johnson | #48, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 15 | Ryan Newman | #31, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet |
| 16 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | #17, Roush Fenway Racing, Ford |
| 17 | Kurt Busch | #41, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford |
| 18 | Ryan Blaney | #12, Team Penske, Ford |
| 19 | Chase Elliott | #9, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 20 | William Byron | #24, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 21 | Michael McDowell | #34, Front Row Motorsports, Ford |
| 22 | Chris Buescher | #37, JTG Daugherty Racing, Chevrolet |
| 23 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | #43, Richard Petty Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 24 | A.J. Allmendinger | #47, JTG Daugherty Racing, Chevrolet |
| 25 | Aric Almirola | #10, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford |
| 26 | Trevor Bayne | #6, Roush Fenway Racing, Ford |
| 27 | Kasey Kahne | #95, Leavine Family Racing, Chevrolet |
| 28 | Ty Dillon | #13, Germain Racing, Chevrolet |
| 29 | Matt DiBenedetto | #32, Go Fas Racing, Ford |
| 30 | Ross Chastain | #15, Premium Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 31 | Gray Gaulding | #23, BK Racing, Toyota |
| 32 | Reed Sorenson | #7, Premium Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 33 | Kyle Weatherman | #99, StarCom Racing, Chevrolet |
| 34 | Corey Lajoie | #72, TriStar Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 35 | B.J. McLeod | #51, Rick Ware Racing, Chevrolet |
| 36 | Landon Cassill | #00, StarCom Racing, Chevrolet |
| 37 | Austin Dillon | #3, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet |
| 38 | David Ragan | #38, Front Row Motorsports, Ford |
| 39 | Timmy Hill | #66, MBM Motorsports, Toyota |
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The next NASCAR Cup Series race is the 18th race of the season. That race is the Coke Zero Sugar 400, which is set to take place on Saturday, July 7 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Tune in to the live broadcast of that race at 7:00 p.m. on NBC.