NASCAR Cup Series: Kyle Busch wins 2019 TicketGuardian 500

Kyle Busch earned his first victory of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season in the season’s fourth race, the TicketGuardian 500, at ISM Raceway.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch entered the fourth race of the 36-race 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season, the TicketGuardian 500, at ISM Raceway having not finished a race lower than sixth place all season. However, he had not yet won a race.

Busch changed that by winning the 312-lap race around the four-turn, 1.022-mile (1.645-kilometer) ISM Raceway oval in Avondale, Arizona. He started this race in fourth place in his #18 Toyota and won it by 1.259 seconds over teammate Martin Truex Jr., who finished in second in his #19 Toyota.

This victory is the 52nd victory of Busch’s Cup Series career, and it is the 199th victory of his NASCAR career, as he has also earned an all-time record 94 career Xfinity Series victories and an all-time record 53 career Truck Series victories.

In fact, Busch won yesterday’s Xfinity Series race, the iK9 Service Dog 200, at ISM Raceway as well. His career NASCAR win total of 199 is just one win shy of Richard Petty’s all-time record. Petty won 200 races, all Cup Series races, throughout the course of his career in the sport.

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Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who started the race from the pole position, and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola were the highest finishing Ford drivers of the race. They finished in third and fourth place in their #12 Ford and #10 Ford, respectively. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five by finishing in fifth in his #11 Toyota.

Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Kyle Larson and Kurt Busch and Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson were the highest finishing Chevrolet drivers of the race. They finished in sixth, seventh and eighth place in their #42 Chevrolet, #1 Chevrolet and #48 Chevrolet, respectively.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick and Team Penske’s Joey Logano rounded out the top 10 by finishing in ninth and 10th place in their #4 Ford and #22 Ford, respectively.

The race featured a total of 17 lead changes among six drivers. Aside of Busch, who led more laps than anybody else in the field with 177 laps led, five drivers led at least one lap of the race. Those drivers were Blaney, Almirola, Hamlin, Johnson and Richard Childress Racing rookie Daniel Hemric. Blaney won stage one and Busch won stage two.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott also led a few laps of the race, as he took the lead from Blaney at the start after starting in second place, but he was penalized for a start violation, as he crossed the starting line before Blaney did.

As a result, the laps that Elliott led were recorded as laps led by Blaney, who was running in second place behind Elliott when Elliott had the lead and who took the lead when Elliott served the drive-through penalty that he was issued for committing this violation.

The race also featured a total of nine caution flag periods, of which two took place as a result of the usual endings of stages one and two and seven took place as a result of on-track incidents. These nine caution flag periods lasted for a total of 57 laps. Of the 36 drivers who started the race, 33 finished it and 16 finished it on the lead lap.

Here are the full race results of the 2019 TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway.

Race Results
1st – Kyle Busch
2nd – Martin Truex Jr.
3rd – Ryan Blaney
4th – Aric Almirola
5th – Denny Hamlin
6th – Kyle Larson
7th – Kurt Busch
8th – Jimmie Johnson
9th – Kevin Harvick
10th – Joey Logano
11th – Clint Bowyer
12th – Ryan Newman
13th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
14th – Chase Elliott
15th – Ty Dillon
16th – Chris Buescher
17th – Paul Menard
18th – Daniel Hemric
19th – Brad Keselowski
20th – Matt Tifft
21st – Austin Dillon
22nd – Darrell Wallace Jr.
23rd – Daniel Suarez
24th – William Byron
25th – David Ragan
26th – Corey LaJoie
27th – Ross Chastain
28th – Matt DiBenedetto
29th – Erik Jones
30th – Quin Houff
31st – Bayley Currey
32nd – Cody Ware
33rd – Landon Cassill
34th – Ryan Preece
35th – Alex Bowman
36th – Michael McDowell

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The next race on the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the season’s fifth race, the Auto Club 400. This race is scheduled to take place at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 17, and it is set to be broadcast live on Fox from Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, so be sure not to miss it.

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