Kyle Busch pulls away to win trucks race at Bristol

Kyle Busch wins trucks race at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kyle Busch pulled away from Matt Crafton in the closing laps to easily win the O’Reilly 200 truck series race Wednesday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Busch passed Jason White for the lead on lap 124 and then steadily pulled away from Crafton after the race’s final caution period on lap 175.

Driving the No. 51 Toyota for Billy Ballew, it was Busch’s second straight win at the .533-mile short track and his third victory of the season. He has 12 victories overall in the three NASCAR national touring series this season.

“It’s a fun place to race,” Busch said. “For some reason, I’ve really taken to this track. We knew we had a fast truck. It was great to be able to capitalize tonight.”

Ron Hornaday Jr. finished third to end his series-record winning streak at five. His five wins coming into the race were the most in one of NASCAR’s three national series since Bobby Allison and Richard Petty each won five consecutive Sprint Cup races in 1971.

“Bristol is the toughest one,” said Hornaday, the defending series champion. “I was pretty conservative. We finished in the top five, which is what we needed for the points.”

Ryan Newman, who is running four NASCAR-sanctioned events at BMS this week, started on the pole with a speed of 122.217 mph. The 2008 Daytona 500 winner finished fourth, just hours after finishing 37th in a race for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Series.