Kyle Busch stays hot, wins Truck Series race at Pocono

LONG POND, Pa. — There’s a race. Kyle Busch is in it. He wins it.

This is becoming routine.

Busch survived some frantic racing over the closing laps to win Saturday’s Pocono Mountains 150 Camping World Truck Series race at Pocono Raceway.

Sunday, Busch will be shooting for his fourth straight Sprint Cup victory — and fifth in six races — when he starts from the pole in the Windows 10 400 at Pocono.

“It’s been unreal,” he said. “Those are the words to put on it. It’s fun. You just try to enjoy it as much as you can.”

There were three green-white-checkered restarts over the final laps as accidents delayed the checkered flag. Busch stayed in front of the mayhem to outrun second-place Kevin Harvick by 1.22 seconds in his first trucks race of 2015.

Busch has won at least once race in all three of NASCAR’s national series for the 10th time in his career. The second-winningest driver in Truck Series history, Busch picked up career win No. 43. He won eight times in 2010 and seven times each in 2009 and 2014.

Tyler Reddick was third, followed by Cameron Hayley and Austin Dillon.

Reddick took the series points lead from Matt Crafton, who was involved in a crash with Sprint Cup driver Brad Keselowski on the race’s sixth lap, a wreck that ignited a bit of controversy.

Only six laps into the race, Crafton moved up the track to give Harvick room to pass. Keselowski had nowhere to go and ran into the rear of Crafton’s truck and both vehicles were badly damaged.

In an interview after the crash, Crafton called Keselowski “pretty much an idiot” and suggested Keselowski could be helping teammate Tyler Reddick, who is battling Crafton in the Truck point race.

Keselowski rejected such talk. “I have no interest in coming to the Truck series and wrecking someone on purpose,” he said.

With two favorites eliminated, that opened the way for Busch and Harvick to race for the win. Dillon spun out promising driver Erik Jones on lap 59 to force the green-white checkered finish.

Busch’s recent winning streak appears to have turned the fans in his favor. Always a driver who embraced his bad boy image, Busch heard nothing but cheers when he took his traditional victory bow.

“It’s fun to change the mindset a little bit,” he said. “It seems, although we’re winning and winning a lot, there are fans who will cheer and hoot and holler.”

Contributing: The Associated Press

PHOTOS: Behind the wheel with Kyle Busch

Pocono Mountains 150 

Saturday's results from the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway:

1. (2) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 69 laps, 0 points, $41,542.

2. (7) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 69, 0, $26,768.

3. (6) Tyler Reddick, Ford, 69, 41, $27,203.

4. (16) Cameron Hayley, Toyota, 69, 40, $21,817.

5. (5) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 69, 0, $16,613.

6. (17) Johnny Sauter, Toyota, 69, 39, $16,279.

7. (12) Timothy Peters, Toyota, 69, 37, $15,725.

8. (14) Matt Tifft, Toyota, 69, 36, $15,475.

9. (15) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 69, 35, $15,420.

10. (1) Erik Jones, Toyota, 69, 35, $18,587.

11. (8) Ben Kennedy, Toyota, 69, 33, $15,281.

12. (11) Mason Mingus, Chevrolet, 69, 32, $15,141.

13. (9) John Hunter Nemechek, Chevrolet, 69, 31, $15,058.

14. (13) Spencer Gallagher, Chevrolet, 69, 31, $15,003.

15. (20) Tyler Young, Chevrolet, 69, 29, $15,264.

16. (18) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 69, 28, $14,953.

17. (10) John Wes Townley, Chevrolet, 68, 27, $14,643.

18. (21) Jordan Anderson, Chevrolet, 67, 26, $14,503.

19. (32) Kyle Martel, Chevrolet, 67, 25, $14,393.

20. (25) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 67, 24, $12,587.

21. (23) Todd Peck, Chevrolet, 66, 23, $11,921.

22. (30) Norm Benning, Chevrolet, 63, 22, $14,060.

23. (19) Travis Kvapil, Chevrolet, 56, 21, $13,949.

24. (31) Ray Black Jr., Chevrolet, accident, 52, 20, $12,616.

25. (26) Wendell Chavous, Chevrolet, accident, 51, 19, $12,727.

26. (24) Jennifer Jo Cobb, Chevrolet, 49, 18, $11,533.

27. (29) Korbin Forrister, Chevrolet, accident, 24, 17, $11,505.

28. (3) Matt Crafton, Toyota, accident, 13, 16, $12,258.

29. (22) B.J. McLeod, Chevrolet, overheating, 12, 15, $11,229.

30. (4) Brad Keselowski, Ford, accident, 5, 0, $10,729.

31. (28) Justin Jennings, Chevrolet, vibration, 3, 13, $9,229.

32. (27) Caleb Roark, Chevrolet, suspension, 3, 12, $8,229.

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Race Statistics

Average Speed of Race Winner: 119.607 mph.

Time of Race: 1 hour, 26 minutes, 32 seconds.

Margin of Victory: 1.225 seconds.

Caution Flags: 5 for 16 laps.

Lead Changes: 4 among 4 drivers.

Lap Leaders: E.Jones 1-9; K.Busch 10-31; J.Sauter 32-35; S.Gallagher 36-38; K.Busch 39-69.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Led, Laps Led): K.Busch, 2 times for 53 laps; E.Jones, 1 time for 9 laps; J.Sauter, 1 time for 4 laps; S.Gallagher, 1 time for 3 laps.

Top 10 in Points: 1. T.Reddick, 479; 2. M.Crafton, 468; 3. E.Jones, 463; 4. J.Sauter, 420; 5. C.Hayley, 391; 6. J.Townley, 387; 7. D.Hemric, 382; 8. T.Peters, 380; 9. S.Gallagher, 366; 10. B.Kennedy, 362.