Kyle Busch stretched his final fuel run to break his 33-race winless skid in the NASCAR Cup Series, scoring his first win of the season in a rain-delayed Wednesday finish at Texas Motor Speedway.
Busch’s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led a race-high 90 of the 334 laps in the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500. His fourth victory at the 1.5-mile Texas track was the 57th of his Cup Series career.
The victory denied the remaining Cup Series Playoffs contenders an automatic berth in the Championship 4 field that will compete for the Cup Series championship in the Nov. 8 finale at Phoenix Raceway. Three spots are still up for grabs in Sunday’s Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway.
Teammate Martin Truex Jr. placed second in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota, finishing .468 seconds back at the checkered flag. Rookie Christopher Bell drove home in third place, with Ryan Blaney taking fourth and Alex Bowman fifth.
The race was halted Sunday after 52 laps by a persistent rain. That precipitation lingered in the Fort Worth area, washing out Monday and Tuesday rain dates before the event resumed Wednesday at 5:10 p.m. ET.
Before the rain delay, Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford sustained right-side damage after a Sunday afternoon scrape with the Turn 2 wall. The team battled through multiple vibrations Wednesday, and Harvick, a nine-time winner this year, held on to finish 16th, the first driver one lap down.
Clint Bowyer won the first stage and led 89 laps, but he was forced to pit with 24 laps remaining. He slipped to a 17th-place finish in what’s set to be his final Texas start.
THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF THE GO FAST
This week there were zero players who were banking on Kyle Busch breaking his 2020 winless streak. Therefore, this weekly award will slide back into the proverbial closet in hope of re-emerging after the Martinsville race.
THE MOVERS AND THE SHAKERS
As an overall evaluation of our expertise for Texas was challenged! None of the players really busted off the big numbers this week.
The biggest scorers of the week is a really hodge-podge of players! That hodge-podge consists of Dan The Numbers Cruncher, Bernie The Bay Area Bandit, Snoopy Dawn, as well as Leon Your Benevolent and Most Humble Sheriff. This wildly mismatched quartet racked up a cool 30 points for their 3rd segment buckets. The Numbers Dude, Snoopy, and Your Most Humble Sheriff were all supporters and rooters of Sliced Bread, aka Joey Logano, while La Bandita was riding shotgun with Kurt Busch.
Amber The Extremely Lucky Cheddar Head fared reasonably well at Texas. The former Redneck Fantasy League leader dropped 21 points into her tally box via her man, Chase Elliott.
Meanwhile, Carole, aka Rudy, added 18 points to her 3rd segment totals when Ryan Newman rolled underneath the checkered flag and finished 19th.
Both Carlton The Doorman and Jeremy The Coach were banding together in their support of Aric Almirola. These players added 14 points to their 3rd segment totals today.
Rounding out the rest of the fantasy league scorers is a trio consisting of Jim, aka Chiefy, Edie The Las Vegas Super Star, and Linda The Cookie Mom. All three players were rooting for Mr. Seven-Time, Jimmie Johnson. For their day at the race track this threesome earned 7 microscopic points!
There was a lot of movement within the scoring pylon, however it was not in gigantic chunks. Seven of the eleven players exchanged living quarters this week.
The biggest mover for the week was Edie The Las Vegas Super Star. The Super Star picked up and move down two (2) positions to land in 7th place.
The remaining six players, Bernie The Bay Area Bandit, Amber The Extremely Lucky Cheddar Head, Carlton The Doorman, Carole, aka Rudy, Dan The Numbers Cruncher, as well as Linda The Cookie Mom all moved next door to their former location. La Bandita, The Doorman, Rudy, and The Numbers Dude all moved up one place to rest now in 1st, 5th, 6th, and 10th place, respectively. Whereas The Cheddar Head and The Cookie Mom fell one (1) spot to own 2nd, and 11th places, respectively.
STRAIGHT FROM THE CRAPPER
This week we get a three-fer! Jim, aka Chiefy, Edie The Las Vegas Super Star, as well as Linda The Cookie Mom all scored seven (7) points, which qualified them to share The Crappiest Pick of The Week Award!
We have a brand new occupant of The Outhouse this week! Linda The Cookie Mom, with her seven points for the race, that total was small enough to allow her to evict The Numbers Dude back to the general population!
The Round of 8 finale is the Xfinity 500, scheduled Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the .526-mile Martinsville track. The 500-lapper will be the next-to-last race of the year.
Check out the results of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500.
TIL NEXT TIME, PULL YOUR BELTS TIGHT AND LET’S GO RACIN’!