Kyle Busch put on another dominating performance to claim his eighth Xfinity Series win Friday night.
Although he started seventh, Busch led 197 of 250 laps in the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 at Richmond International Raceway. He took the lead for the first time on Lap 51, after winning the race off pit road. He led the next 106 laps before making his second and final pit stop of the night.
Erik Jones led for two laps before Busch cycled back out front. Once he did, the No. 18 from Joe Gibbs Racing was again untouchable, and Busch led the race’s final 91 laps on his way to a 6.4-second win over his teammate Jones.
“I was down to begin with, never give up I guess,” Busch told NBCSN. “Just keep going, keep working and keep doing what we can do. Obviously an awesome job by my crew chief, Chris Gayle. A true testament to everyone on this NOS Energy drink Camry, this Toyota was awesome today.”
MORE: Results and statistics from the Virginia 259 College Savings 250
MORE: Sadler extends points lead following Richmond
The victory was the 84th of Busch’s career and his sixth at Richmond. He sits one win behind Kevin Harvick (seven) for the most at Richmond in the Xfinity Series.
Busch has now led 1,558 laps in his 14 Xfinity starts this season.
Brad Keselowski finished third, Elliott Sadler finished fourth, and Justin Allgaier finished fifth. Ryan Reed finished 11th and became the 10th driver to lock up a spot in the Chase, leaving the final two positions to be determined next weekend at Chicagoland Speedway.
HOW BUSCH WON: Busch took the lead on pit road on Lap 51 and would go on to lead 197 laps.
WHO ELSE HAD A GOOD DAY: JR Motorsports placed all three cars in the top 10 with Elliott Sadler finished fourth, Justin Allgaier fifth, and Alex Bowman ninth ... Ty Dillon earned his first top-10 since Aug. 13 with a sixth-place finish ... Brennan Poole finished 10th after starting 31st.
WHO HAD A BAD DAY: Brendan Gaughan finished 18th ... Justin Marks spun to bring out the first caution and finished 22nd ... Brandon Jones finished 23rd.
NOTABLE: Kyle Busch earned Joe Gibbs Racing its 14th win of the season. It was also the team’s seventh victory at Richmond. The organization also finished 1-2 for the seventh time this year.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “It’s unfortunate, we want to win. I feel like we had a car that could do it, just not against Kyle and the 18.” - Erik Jones on teammate Kyle Busch’s experience.
WHAT’S NEXT: The Xfinity Series will determine its 12-driver Chase field in the Chicago 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on Sept. 17.