Kyle Busch races to first Xfinity win at Atlanta Motor Speedway

Check another one off the list for Kyle Busch.

Less than 24 hours after losing the Sprint Cup pole, Busch claimed his first Xfinity Series victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia on Saturday.

Busch and Kyle Larson pulled away from the field after the final yellow flag. Larson closed the gap to about a half-second in the closing laps, but the rally ended when he got caught up briefly behind the lapped car of Ryan Preece.

Busch crossed the line 0.466 seconds ahead of Larson, then did his customary buout and bow in front of the main grandstand, holding the checkered flag. No one else was within 10 seconds of the first two cars.

The wier has plenty of experience celebrating in the second-tier series, claiming his career-best 77th victory, though Atlanta was one of three active tracks where he’d never won an Xfinity race.

Not anymore.

“This is a pretty neat deal,” Busch said. “I’m glad get it out of the way.”

The victory was especially sweet coming less than 24 hours after Busch surrendered the pole for today’s Sprint Cup race when his car failed inspection.

He won the pole for the Xfinity race in the moing and then dominated on a suy afteoon, leading 119 of 163 laps.

Of course, that didn’t lessen the disappointment of having to start from the back of the field today.

“This is Xfinity, that’s Cup,” Busch said. “But it is what it is. It’s not that big a deal.”

Busch was thrilled to add another track to his victory list, especially since he had had five ruer-up finishes in Atlanta. Watkins Glen and Las Vegas — site of next week’s event — are the only other active Xfinity tracks where he hasn’t won.

NASCAR Trucks

John Hunter Nemechek emerged from the caage that took out the front ruers to win the NASCAR Truck series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Nemechek, the son of longtime Cup driver Joe Nemechek, held off Cameron Hayley by 0.31 seconds to capture his second career Truck victory.

On a restart with two laps to go, the 18-year-old came through the trioval side by side with John Wes Townley. When Townley got loose, Nemechek pulled away to win for a team that lacks a major sponsor.

Matt Crafton led much of the race, only to get taken out in a huge wreck caused by Christopher Bell with 19 laps to go. The wreck also claimed Bell’s teammate, Daniel Suarez, who was ruing second.

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Bell surged to the lead after the race was briefly halted and the wreckage cleared. But he cut a tire with seven laps remaining and slammed into the wall.

NHRA

Points leader Ron Capps took the No. 1 qualifying position in Fuy Car on Saturday at the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals in Chandler, Arizona.

Coming off a Winteationals win two weeks ago in Pomona, Capps set a track record with a 3.925 second pass at 320.50 mph in his Dodge Charger, just .005 of a second better than Courtney Force’s 3.930 run on Friday. It is the 18th No. 1 of his career and third at this event.

“We’re not so naïve to think this can keep up,” Capps said. “There’s too good of competition. We’ll just take it, we’ll take the wins and this is a great No. 1 qualifier and this sets us up great for Sunday.”

Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel) and Bo Butner (Pro Stock) also will lead their categories into today’s eliminations as No. 1 qualifiers.

Kalitta powered his Kalitta Motorsports dragster to a 3.741 at 320.74 in the final round of qualifying to ea his 44th No. 1 and his fourth at Wild Horse Pass Motor Sports Park, holding off rival Antron Brown, whose improved time of 3.760 at 322.65 wasn’t enough as he sits in the second spot.

Butner claimed his first career No. 1 qualifying position in Pro Stock with his pass of 6.618 at 208.88 in a Chevy Camaro from Friday. Butner teammates Jason Line and Greg Anderson qualified second and third in their Camaros.

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