Fantastic Kyle Busch in Fontana!

Kyle Busch won at the Fontana Auto Club in his second start at the wheel of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Published on 27/02/2023 à 01:29

⁰ View comments)

61st NASCAR Cup Series victory for Kyle Busch © NBC

Kyle Busch had already come close to victory at the Daytona 500, but how can we imagine that he could win so early with his new team. This is simply the mark of the greatest, and Busch is already certain of completing a 19th consecutive season with at least one victory.

Kyle Busch always higher © NASCAR

For the 33rd time since 1997, the drivers met at the Fontana Auto Club. An important meeting since on the evening of this race the historic California oval began its transformation to return only in 2025. The 2-mile track will then have transformed into Short Track, an increasingly popular format in NASCAR where Rain tires will be authorized from next season. If this change goes in the direction of history, it is a shame to see this spectacular track disappear, which offered a multitude of racing lines with sometimes the impressive image of 8 cars abreast.

Snow in California Saturday © NASCAR

Due to rain and even heavy snow falling on Saturday, qualifying was canceled. Christopher Bell inherited pole for the benefit of the combined driver and team rankings.

As the ultimate tribute to the track, the cars lined up in rows of 5 offered a moving parade to the packed stands. The green flag released the 36 cars in a temperature of 7 degrees which was very unusual in California and on a very dirty and incredibly bumpy track due to lack of resurfacing of course for its final year.

The peloton pays tribute to Fontana © NASCR

From the 13th lap Kyle Larson returned to the pits to try to resolve an engine problem before the competition yellow flag scheduled for the 15th. The 2021 Champion, forced to go through his garage to change the injection of his Chevrolet V8, finally returned to the track 15 laps behind.

A small exit from Kyle Busch, fortunately with no other consequence than a handful of lost places, caused a yellow flag before the end of the first segment won by Ross Chastain.

The start of the second section proved to be very choppy with 2 neutralizations in quick succession for AJ Allmendiger and Corey Lajoie before a collective crash which notably left Aric Almirola, Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick behind.

Caution is out for an incident on the restart involving multiple cars. pic.twitter.com/bXRbxKk767

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 26, 2023

Calmed down, the peloton completed the second segment without further incident, won again by Ross Chastain ahead of Kyle Busch who had returned from the back of the peloton at a hellish pace.

Chastain took command with authority at the start of the last segment but Kyle Busch began to show himself in his rear bumper at the wheel of his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro. The two men exchanged first place, but “Rowdy” Busch took the lead for good on the 179th of the 200 laps of the race.

Kyle Busch returns to Ross Chastain © NASCAR

Solid, the Las Vegas native built up a cushion of security seconds in the lead and raced towards victory, his 5th at Fontana ahead of Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain. A historic victory that deserves a bow.