Kyle Busch has won just about everything there is to win in the Camping World Truck Series except for Daytona. After all the waiting, he finally got his time.
Kyle Busch made a pass on Timothy Peters in the last turn of Daytona to win the NextEra Energy Resources 250 in a photo finish. He beat Peters to the line by 0.016 seconds, closest of the Camping World Truck Series at Daytona.
Busch becomes the first driver ever to win at Daytona in Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Trucks, and ARCA series.
“I wasn’t sure I was going to win this one at all,” Busch said. “As soon as I broke the plane, I was like, ‘Oh, boy! This might be it.’ Then I was like, ‘I hope there’s not somebody below the 17. If there’s somebody down there, they might beat us all to the line.’ Man, it worked out right.”
Johnny Sauter finished 3rd followed very closely by Ryan Truex and Ron Hornaday. 2013 Rookie of the Year Ryan Blaney finished 6th and defending champion Matt Crafton finished 13th after sliding out of contention.
The race was calm for the most part through out the first half of the race. The first half was led by rookie and pole sitter Ben Kennedy who is the great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. He lost the lead on a pit stop and Kyle Busch worked to hold off the rest of the field.
In the last 27 laps, there were two very big caution periods. After Peters took the lead from Busch, a 17 truck wreck ensued. The trucks driven by John Wes Townsley, Ross Chastain, Darrell Wallace Jr., John King, Mason Mingus, Parker Kligerman, Sean Corr, Brian Ickler, Ryan Sieg, Tyler Young, Chris Fontaine, Tyler Reddick, Ben Kennedy, Joey Coulter, Brennan Newberry, Chris Cockrum and Caleb Holman received damage ranging from minimal to unfixable.
Peters lost 8 stops on the following pitstop but worked his way back to the lead with 4 laps to go before finishing 2nd.
“A lot of people’s seasons start by how well they do at Daytona,” Peters said. “Last year, we got in a wreck and finished 30th. The year before we finished second and almost won the championship. This isn’t too bad of a thing, you know?”
The Camping World Truck Series is off until April when they go racing in Martinsville, The season is underway and who knows what the Trucks Series will bring in 2014.
“He’s Kyle Busch.”
