Kyle Busch scored his fourth win of the Sprint Cup season as he took the lead on a late pit stop and motored away to win the AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway Sunday night.
During a caution period with 33 laps to go, the crew of his No. 18 Toyota got him out ahead of the two drivers in front of him at that time, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman.
Busch held the lead over several restarts and drove away to victory even as Logano, driving what appeared to be the fastest car on the track, battled back from a poor restart to finish a strong second and continue his recent hot streak.
Busch, who secured his berth in the Chase, said he’d come a long way since last year when he missed the cut for the championship run.
“A heck of a lot has changed since 365 days ago,” he said.
Martin Truex Jr., driving with a cast on his wrist because of an injury the week before at Bristol Motor Speedway, finished third over Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman.
Kurt Busch moves into 10th in the points standings.
Truex said that while he was hoping to win, he was pleased with the final result.
“I almost had Kyle cleared,” he said, pointing out that he had a long way to come after having to restart at the back with less than 100 laps to go. “I’m surprised we made it that far.”
Logano’s strong run continued a streak that started in July. Since finishing 40th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 14, the one-time Alpharetta resident hasn’t finished worse than eighth and has risen from 18th in the points standings to 10th heading into the AdvoCare 500.
His move from Joe Gibbs Racing to the No. 22 Ford at Penske Racing and the results he’s been posting make him one of the favorites to win the championship with just one race left to run before the start of the championship-deciding 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Logano, who had never finished better than 18th in six previous starts at AMS, started 11th and led for the first time on Lap 25.
He had one of the fastest cars in the middle sections of the race, but was off sequence with the other leaders for much of that time.
Logano’s teammate, defending Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowskisaw saw his hopes for repeating as champion take a beating as the engine in his No. 2 Ford began to fade at Lap 243 while he was leading the race. He held on until the engine expired with 15 laps to go and will likely need a victory at Richmond Saturday night to have a chance to be a part of the Chase.
“We just didn’t put all the pieces together,” Keselowski said.
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