WINNERS
Kyle Busch — Stretches his fuel, holds off teammate Martin Truex Jr., who needed the win to advance to the title race, and snapped a 33-race winless streak with his victory Wednesday at Texas. The win also gave Busch at least a victory in 16 consecutive years, tying Ricky Rudd, Rusty Wallace and Jimmie Johnson for third on the all-time Cup list. Said Busch: “For me having the opportunity to continue that win streak was certainly high on our list, and when you fall out of the playoffs and you’ve got nothing else to race for, that’s all you have to race for is trophies and getting wins for the rest of this year, and it feels really good to be able to come here to Texas and score that win.”
Alex Bowman — Lost time on pit road and that cost him track position. When his crew was finished, Bowman waited for Ricky Stenhouse to pull into his pit stall in front of him. But Stenhouse stopped to wait on Bowman to exit his stall. Those few seconds cost Bowman several spots. Bowman rallied to finish fifth, giving him eight top 10s in the last 10 races. That’s the best active streak in the series.
Harrison Burton — Dramatic charge ends with taking the lead on the last corner of the last lap to win the Xfinity race on Saturday for his third victory of the year.
Christopher Bell — Finished a career-best third in Wednesday’s Cup race, giving Levine Family Racing, which will exit the sport after this season, a highlight in one of his final races.
LOSERS
Noah Gragson — Lost the lead to Harrison Burton coming off Turn 4 of the last lap of the Xfinity race. Runner-up finish is great but Gragson needs a win to make the championship race and might have just seen his chance at that opportunity go away.
Jimmie Johnson — Engine failure left him with a 36th-place finish in Wednesday’s Cup race. It marks his ninth consecutive finish outside the top 10.
Matt Kenseth and Bubba Wallace — After waiting three days to resume the Cup race, both were eliminated in a wreck after completing less than 10 laps Wednesday.