Kyle Busch had enough gas to cross the finish line in first place Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, earning his first victory at the track in 15 years.
Busch needed to advance in double overtime and under a booking to pick up the win. «Rowdy» barely had enough gas to make it to the finish.
His crew chief made a late call for Busch to come by for additional fuel, but the message was received too late and the No. 8 was left out for the two-lap sprint. Also, Ryan Blaney converted Bubba Wallace to cause a late crash to ultimately end the race with the RCR driver in first.
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Kyle Busch, driver of the #8 McLaren Custom Grills Chevrolet, drives during the NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 23, 2023 in Talladega, Alabama. (James Gilbert/Getty Images)
«Sometimes you have to get lucky. Some of these races come down to that,» Busch said. «You have to take them when they get in your way. The sea parted there when they came up the racetrack. I saw [Wallace] I turned a little bit to the side, and I was like, ‘Get out of the way!’ Just miss it and try to see if I was ahead of [Blaney] at the time he was called.»
Before the exhaustion and victory lap could finish, Busch’s car stalled. He ran out of gas.
“We were sweating from being close…and I was like, ‘We have to bet. We’re up here.’ You have to take track position when you have it and go find what you can on restarts and see what happens. Lo and behold, it worked. So knock on wood for this,» she added.
Blaney met Wallace late on, likely costing him his first NASCAR Cup Series win since 2021.
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Kyle Busch celebrates at Victory Lane after winning a NASCAR Cup Series car race at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, April 23, 2023, in Talladega, Alabama. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
«In my opinion, you do a triple move like that, triple block, and you can’t block three times,» Blaney said. «The runs are so big, and as the lead with Bubba, he’s trying to block, which is the right thing to do, but I think he moved three times. You don’t really get a lot of those. I’ve got to go somewhere.»
Wallace did not put the blame on Blaney.
«Close, close, close the block,» he said. «No [Blaney’s] failure. Honestly, I thought he would leave me high and dry when he got back. Hate, I caused that. Man, I thought it would be a little different, obviously without breaking the bank.»
Blaney finished in second, Chris Buescher finished third, Chase Briscoe recovered from a spin on pit road to finish in fourth, and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five.
A crew member of NASCAR Cup Series driver Todd Gilliland’s car looks on during the NASCAR Cup Series car race at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, April 23, 2023, in Talladega, Alabama. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
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Busch has two wins on the season so far.
Associated Press contributed to this report.