NASCAR: Kyle Busch comes up just short of tripleheader sweep

Kyle Busch came up short of securing what would have been the third tripleheader sweep of his NASCAR career at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Kyle Busch won Friday’s NASCAR Truck Series race, the Strat 200, driving the #51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota before going on to win Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, the Boyd Gaming 300, driving the #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

As a result, the 33-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native had a chance to complete the tripleheader sweep at his home track, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, by winning Sunday’s Cup Series race, the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube.

But Busch ultimately came up short of securing what would have been the third tripleheader sweep of his NASCAR career.

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Busch started the 267-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) high-banked Las Vegas Motor Speedway oval in Las Vegas, Nevada in third place in his #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, and that is where he finished it.

Busch won the Xfinity Series race at the track after falling to 33rd place and one lap off the lead lap early on as a result of the fact that he had to make an unscheduled pit stop due to a loose wheel.

So when he fell to 23rd and one lap off the lead lap in the second stage of the Cup Series race as a result of a drive-through penalty that he was given for speeding on pit road, it seemed like déjà vu when he was able to get back on the lead lap and work his way up into the top five as the laps were winding down.

But it was simply not meant to be, as he finished 1.419 seconds behind race winner Joey Logano of Team Penske.

The two tripleheader sweeps that Busch has secured over the course of his NASCAR career both took place at Bristol Motor Speedway. He won the Truck Series race, the Xfinity Series race and the Cup Series race at the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) high-banked oval in Bristol, Tennessee on the same weekend in August of 2010, and he repeated this feat at the track in August of 2017.

Busch is set to have one more chance to secure a tripleheader sweep this season, as he is set to drive in the Truck Series race, the Xfinity Series race and the Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas in four weeks.

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Will Kyle Busch secure the third tripleheader sweep of his NASCAR career in a few weeks at Texas Motor Speedway.

The Truck Series race at the track, the Vankor 350, is scheduled to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 9:00 p.m. on Friday, March 29 while the Xfinity Series race at the track, the My Bariatric Solutions 300, is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 30.

Finally, the Cup Series race at the track, the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, is set to be broadcast live on Fox beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 31. Be sure not to miss any of these three races.

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