Kyle Busch won the FR8 208 Craftsman Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday marking both his first victory in 2024 and in his first race with Spire Motorsports.
Kyle Busch took the lead from Grant Enfinger on lap 129 of 135 in his first start of 2024 Craftsman Truck Series while driving the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. Over the next five laps, he managed to hold off Ty Majeski and Corey Heim to win his seventh race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the 65th of his career, along with setting a new series record.
Enfinger led the race for twenty-one laps in a row before one of his tires started to lose pressure forcing him to the pits. Busch, Majeski, Heim, Taylor Gray, and Nick Sanchez—last week’s Daytona winner—all passed.
Busch was 0.187 seconds faster than Majeski, who beat Heim by 0.009 seconds to take second place. Gray finished fourth, while Sanchez finished fifth.
Busch led the race for thirty-three laps. Tyler Ankrum started the race and finished sixth after leading 46 laps.
Three debris cautions went out during the second half of the race. For the first two cautions, Ankrum took the lead as Stewart Friesen crashed into the wall later on lap 79 resulting in a debris caution.
On lap 95, a section of Bayley Currey’s truck’s roof fell off, triggering a yellow flag once more as a result of debris.
When the race resumed, Dean Thompson reclaimed the lead; however, on the same lap, debris triggered the yellow flag again. On the lap-105 restart, Ankrum and Busch took first and second, respectively. However, a lack of drafting assist forced Ankrum to fall behind a number of spots, and Enfinger afterwards took the lead.
Christian Eckes emerged victorious on Stage One after 30 laps, which saw him lead eighteen laps.
Majeski led the opening lap and for the next ten laps, he, Ankrum and Busch swapped leading at the front. On lap eleven, Eckes took the lead.
On lap 16, Keith McGee and Lawless Alan spun, bringing out the yellow flag for the first time. Majeski put a challenge behind Eckes at the restart. However, at the end of the stage, Majeski had dropped to sixth place, while Ankrum had placed second behind Eckes.
A brake problem plagued Eckes on pit road following his stage one victory. By the time the stage resumed, Ankrum led a quartet of drivers to rejoin the race as the race leader.
With his brakes still giving him trouble, Eckes quickly forfeited the run in the lead lap and proceeded to the garage. On lap 49, the race suffered another caution due to an incident involving Jake Garcia, Layne Riggs, and Thad Moffitt.
Busch won the second stage under caution at lap 60. The caution came on lap 59 after Jack Wood struck the wall following contact from Bret Holmes, resulting in the fourth yellow. Busch passed Ankrum for the lead on lap 43 and much like in stage one, Ankrum finished second in stage two.
After stage two, a number of drivers pulled out of the race, including Matt Mills, Matt Crafton, and Dye, who restarted in the top three for the race’s final 75 laps. Ben Rhodes, who sat out as well, pitted shortly after the restart due to a problem with his right front tyre.
Kaden Honeycutt finished Saturday’s race in the sixth position as Ankrum came in seventh, Rajah Caruth in eighth, Dye ninth and Thompson in 10th.
