Kyle Busch holds off Todd Bodine in extra laps, wins truck race at Chicagoland again

Busch holds off Bodine, wins Chicagoland trucks

JOLIET, Ill. — Considering just how well his previous weekend went, the last thing Kyle Busch wanted was a week away from racing.

Busch managed to stay busy — and keep winning — on a rare off weekend for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series. He withstood two late challenges for the lead from Todd Bodine, and hung on to win the NASCAR Camping World truck series race at Chicagoland Speedway in overtime Friday night.

Busch was happy to keep his momentum going, and said it’s always satisfying to win with a truck team that he put together with himself as the owner.

“You know the hard work, and the blood, sweat and tears you pour into it with all your guys,” Busch said.

Bodine finished second, followed by Ron Hornaday Jr., Johnny Sauter and Justin Lofton.

“Second stinks, but we’ll take it,” Bodine said.

Busch was coming off a remarkable weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, where he swept the track’s truck, Nationwide and Sprint Cup races.

Busch has shown similar versatility at Chicagoland — he just spread it out over a few years. Busch won the truck race at Chicagoland last year. He also has a Sprint Cup and two Nationwide victories at the track.

It was Busch’s fourth series victory of the season and 20th of his career.

Busch did a tire-smoking victory burnout on the frontstretch, with his crew warning him on the radio to take it easy on the engine.

Afterward, Busch hinted that he isn’t winning every race he enters these days, even if it seems that way.

“Unfortunately, I’ve had some bad luck at the dirt track,” he said.

Bodine leaves Chicagoland with a 236-point lead in the series standings over Aric Almirola, who finished sixth Friday. But the aggressive moves Bodine made to try to get past Busch in the closing laps were an indication that he wasn’t playing it safe just to score some more points.

“We’re here to win,” Bodine said. “That’s what we’re paid to do.”

Busch had dominated most of Friday’s race and was leading comfortably when Austin Dillon tangled with James Buescher with 26 laps to go, bringing out a caution.

Busch, Bodine and the rest of the leaders came to pit road, with the crews of Busch and Bodine both deciding to change four tires while others changed only two. Bodine came out ahead of Busch after a faster pit stop.

Hornaday led the field to a restart, but Busch immediately rocketed into third place and only needed a couple of laps to retake the lead, diving to the very bottom of the track to make the pass.

“I wasn’t going to beat Kyle,” Hornaday said.

Bodine then caught up to Busch with 15 laps to go and stuck close to his rear bumper. Bodine briefly surged ahead by a nose with seven laps to go, but Busch closed the door and pulled away in the closing laps of regulation.

“He pinched us up in the wall,” Bodine said. “I got under him going into (Turn) 3, and got loose.”

Timothy Peters then appeared to blow an engine with three laps to go, sending the race into NASCAR’s version of overtime and setting up another showdown between Busch and Bodine.

Busch surged ahead on the restart, then pulled away.