FONTANA, Calif. — Kyle Busch needed only two races in the 2023 season to prove that he can win a race at Richard Childress Racing.
Busch, who spent the previous 15 seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing before not coming to terms last year and landing at RCR, led the final 21 laps to capture the final race on the 2-mile oval at Auto Club Speedway.
The track is set to be closed for at least two years as it is reconfigured into a half-mile. Busch probably is sorry to see it close.
Busch called it a “phenomenal” victory as he won for the fifth time at the track as he crossed the finish line ahead of Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez and Kevin Harvick.
[Can Kyle Busch break RCR’s title drought? Richard Childress has no doubt]
“I’ve been with a lot of great people that have given me a lot of great opportunities in my career, so it’s awesome to be able to reward them,” Busch said.
Takeaways from Fontana:
Busch gets asphalt win
The win was Busch’s first victory in his last 29 starts and his first win on pavement since June 2021 at Pocono.
His only 2022 victory came on the Bristol dirt, where he took advantage of Chase Briscoe and Tyler Reddick tangling on the final lap and speeding past both of them in the final turns.
So you could say this was a long time coming.
“I never doubted myself, but sometimes you do,” Busch said. “You kind of get down on it, you wonder what’s going on and what’s happening and you put yourself in a different situation and you’re able to come out here and reward your guys.’
Busch gets first win at RCR
Kyle Busch said Sunday’s win at Auto Club Speedway was one of the most rewarding of his career.
Elliott Solid Second
Chase Elliott won five races last year and even made the championship round of the playoffs, but he was not strong late in the year on the intermediate tracks, as he was 21st at Las Vegas and 14th at Homestead.
He wouldn’t proclaim himself as having a full rebound with a second-place finish Sunday but at least he could smile about it.
“It’s hard to say after one day, right?” Elliott said. “I was definitely proud of our whole group for sticking together. We definitely ran poorly those last couple of months. … I felt like we played more defense than we were on offense.
“So I hope this trend continues. We’ll have to get to some other tracks and see how we stack up.”
Elliott said that “I might as well have stayed home for the fall Las Vegas.” He now will get to see the gains the team made as the series heads there next week.
“We’re ready for the grind,” Elliott said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Elliott content with 2nd
Chase Elliott discusses his second-place finish behind Kyle Busch at Fontana.
Stack Them Up
A wreck on a restart took out four cars and involved several more. It is rare to see in the Cup Series that accordion effect happen on a restart.
“I think the leader was just playing games, trying to prevent the runs coming from behind and they stopped in the middle of the restart zone [which] was right about where they should have been accelerating,” said Aric Almirola, one of those disappointed crash victims.
“It was just a huge accordion effect. We were back in 16th, so everybody just started stacking up and you can’t stop on a dime. It’s disappointing to get wrecked out of the race like that on a silly Mickey Mouse restart, but I should have known better.”
Added Ryan Preece: “It’s kind of stupid, to be honest with you on a professional level and we all wreck on a restart.”
Christopher Bell, who started on the pole, also was knocked out of the race. He wasn’t sure who to blame, but drivers tend to lay back behind the car in front of them to have some space to accelerate and potentially make a pass.
“All it takes for guys laying back a little bit and then all of a sudden the further you get back in the field, you have a big run,” Bell said.
As far as the leader at that time, Joey Logano said he wasn’t playing any games. He said NASCAR’s increasing the restart zones at tracks by 50 percent means he, as the leader, has more space to mash the gas — the leader restarts the race in the restart zone.
Logano on restart wreck
Joey Logano said the bigger restart zone will be harder to anticipate without getting in trouble.
“Go back and look at the [telemetry] data — I didn’t do anything,” Logano said. “I just rolled it and went late. Everyone is anticipating — that is part of the new restart zone. It is bigger. You can’t anticipate as much as you used to without getting in trouble.
“I went late in the zone because the car inside of me was laying back. I was waiting for him to get up next to me before I went. I didn’t brake-check anyone.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.
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