The NASCAR Cup Series visited the Midwest this weekend for their 11th race of the season. The Buschy McBusch 400 was held on Sunday afternoon at Kansas Speedway. The race started slow but picked up towards the end. Kyle Busch happened to find himself in the right place at the right time to get his first win of the 2021 season.
NASCAR Cup Series Recap | Kyle Busch Wins at Kansas
Buschy McBusch 400 Stage 1
Brad Keselowski led the field to the green to begin the race. Both Ross Chastain and Kyle Larson came from the back of the field to the top half very quickly. The race stayed clean all the way through the competition caution. Ryan Newman would be penalized during the stop for illegal body modifications. The Fox Sports announcers openly questioned on air whether they had ever seen anything like this before.
🔊 Listen to Burnt Rubber Racing on wherever you get your podcasts!
Keselowski, Larson, and Kyle Busch would trade the lead with under ten to go, as Busch ultimately grabbed the stage win.
Buschy McBusch 400 Stage 2
The race would stay green throughout the entire second stage, but there were some highlights. Cody Ware had a nice spin and burnout trying to get onto pit road to bring out a cuation. Big surprise there! Later, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and others tired to stay out and draw a caution that never came. Larson flew through the lapped cars after his pit stop going on to win Stage 2.
Buschy McBusch 400 Final Stage
Early in the final stage, Bubba Wallace and Alex Bowman made contact and both of them hit the wall. Tyler Reddick’s up and down day was further soured by an uncontrolled tire on pit road. Chris Buescher stayed out on the green flag pit cycle for as long as he could before he ultimately had to come in.
NASCAR would then throw a caution 15 laps after a tire rolled out into the infield. Denny Hamlin got to the front off of the restart but would hit the wall and cut a tire six laps later to bring out another yellow. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun on the next restart to bring out a third caution in this short span. Then, Christopher Bell played a little game of JTG Daugherty Racing pin ball on the way to bringing out another yellow.
On the ensuing restart, Kyle Larson shoved Ryan Blaney to the point where Blaney almost went around, but he somehow managed to save it. Kyle Busch used this chaos to drive to his first win of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season. It marks his first victory since the fall 2020 Texas race and also comes on his birthday, no less!
Final Buschy McBusch 400 Thoughts
The manufactured drama needs to stop. Waiting for 15 laps to throw a caution? That is a bad look. The race overall wasn’t overly entertaining, but the finish was alright. The Kansas Speedway package needs to be fixed and hopefully, the Next Gen car will help with that process.
