Busch Survives the Heat in Phoenix to sweep the Weekend (3-10-19)

By: Becca Cottingham

Headline Photo Credit: NASCAR

Chase Elliot with the black flag do to be eating the whole sitter to the start finish line. Erik Jones had a right rear tire that went out that caused him to bring out the first caution of the race. Brad Keselowski is having issues with his vehicle. He feels like something is broken in the front right. He had sparks flying due to hitting the front splitter. The issue appeared to be limited to a tire going down, but it is a wait and see game. They determined the right front on Brad’s car was a broken away bar. However, during this caution drivers Ryan Newman and Martin Truex got hit with penalties. The repairs on Brad Keselowski’s car took roughly two minutes on pit road. But had put him behind and as of stage two he was at least two laps down. He had been battling go try to keep himself the first car down.

As of stage two, all other drivers who had issues for the exception of Erik Jones have been able to rebound. Right before we ended the stage Alex Bowman scraped the wall due to what looks like another tire issue. Due to the first car being a lap down that caused the yellow flag, no free pass was given. Kyle Busch was able to sail to a smooth win for stage two. Stage three started off with multiple more pit road penalties. Ryan Newman and team got a safety violation penalty due to a crewman touching the equipment side of pit road.

Austin Dillon also had to go to the back for a speeding violation on pit road. Kyle Busch went with a huge move to go from eighth to third at the restart as Ryan Preece got loose and hit the wall. Fuel strategy would be huge with the number of cautions happening in stage three. After going from no cautions to cautions every stage is a big change for these drivers. Kyle Busch was able to finally get around Ryan Blaney and did not look back. He was able to sweep the weekend in Phoenix!

Next Race: Auto Club Speedway-March 17 @3:30pm