Busch Caps Off Emotional Week with Kansas Victory

Kyle Busch won the Busch Light Buschy McBusch Race 400 from Kansas Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

Busch ran up front for most of the day, and he and Kyle Larson were the class of the field as the laps wound down.

Busch was the leader when a late caution came out, and he held off the field on the final restart to pick up his first victory of 2021.

Busch didn’t win until late in 2020, and he said he’s glad his team could get to victory lane early this season.

“It’s cool to get everybody in victory lane again this early in the season,” Busch said.  “It’s hard sometimes…there’s a sense of doubt there for sure.  You’ve got to keep persevering and keep digging.”

The victory came on Busch’s 36^th birthday, and came at the end of an emotional week.  On Friday, Busch and his wife Samantha announced that they had suffered another miscarriage, another setback in their infertility journey.

Busch said it was a tough week for his family.

“You talk about the ups and downs of racing…it’s been a lot of downs of life for us,” Busch said.  “I’ve got a great opportunity and a great job…but struggling with infertility and stuff like that with Samantha.  Just a great day to put this M&M’s Mix Camry up front.”

Larson led a race-high 132 laps, but he lost the lead following a few late cautions.

With the field taking the green flag with two laps remaining, Larson committed to pushing Ryan Blaney to give both drivers a chance at the win.  Larson and Blaney got loose and into the wall, and Larson ended up 19^th.

Larson said he was trying to do all he could to give himself a shot at the win.

“Just planned on pushing Blaney as hard as I could, obviously I was just pushing too hard.” Larson said.  “Got him loose and chased ourselves both up into the wall.”

“That’s really the first time I was behind anybody on a restart, so I thought I could push around the corner.  I learned for next time.”

Unofficial results:

1. Kyle Busch
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Brad Keselowski
4. Matt DiBenedetto
5. Chase Elliott
6. Martin Truex Jr.
7. Tyler Reddick
8. Chris Buescher
9. William Byron
10. Austin Dillon
11. Daniel Suarez
12. Denny Hamlin
13. Michael McDowell
14. Ross Chastain
15. Kurt Busch
16. Ryan Newman
17. Joey Logano
18. Alex Bowman
19. Kyle Larson
20. Chase Briscoe
21. Ryan Blaney
22. Austin Cindric
23. Anthony Alfredo
24. Cole Custer
25. Erik Jones
26. Bubba Wallace
27. Corey LaJoie
28. Christopher Bell
29. Aric Almirola
30. Justin Haley
31. BJ McLeod
32. Ryan Preece
33. Garrett Smithley
34. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
35. Joey Gase
36. Cody Ware
37. Quin Houff
38. Matt Mills
39. Josh Bilicki