NASCAR Fines Kyle Busch Motorsports for an Irregularity at Kansas

Kyle Busch Motorsports’ No. 51 team was one of the two teams fined for irregularities during last weekend’s NASCAR race at the Kansas Speedway.

NASCAR issued penalties and fines on Tuesday to teams in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race.

The other team to be penalized was McAnally Hilgemann Racing’s No.19 team.

The teams were issued penalties after it was found during the post-race check that one lug nut was not safely secured on each of the vehicles.

Derek Kraus was driving the No. 19 and finished seventh in the race. The No. 51 of Kyle Busch Motorsports was driven by Brandon Jones, who finished just behind Kraus in eighth place.

Crew Chiefs Kevin Bellicourt (No. 19) and Danny Stockman (No. 51) were also fined to the extent of $2,500 for the safety failures.

The incident occurred in the second race of a doubleheader weekend at the Kansas Speedway.

Matt Crafton, Austin Hill star on the doubleheader weekend

The race on Saturday was won by Matt Crafton. He successfully brought a winless streak dating back to July 2017 to an end. Crafton led the final 22 laps of the race and saw off a stiff challenge from Christian Eckes to emerge victorious.

With the win, Crafton also qualified for the Truck Series playoffs.

Grant Effinger came in at third, ahead of Tanner Gray and Ben Rhodes.

The race also marked the return of Travis Pastrana to the NASCAR Truck Series. He did not have the best of races but finished in 22nd place.

“It’s very, very sweet,” Crafton said after the race. 

“Not a lot of give up in these guys … The 18 (Eckes) had a little bit of speed, he was making me nervous right there. … I drove it in too deep a couple times, slid the nose. I’d slide the nose and he’d make up ground,” he added.

The first race of the doubleheader weekend was won by Austin Hill, who dominated throughout. It was his first win of the season.

Speaking after the race, Hill said, “We’ve been working so hard this season. We’ve been running really consistent.”

“We finished fourth last year and I told the guys, ‘Let’s finish three spots better,’ and I’ll be dang if we did it,” he added.

SOURCE- NASCAR.com, NBC Sports