Event statistics following the seventh race of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.
Kyle Busch earned his first victory of the 2018, leading a race-high 116 laps to best three-time 2018 race winner Kevin Harvick. It was Busch’s third Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory at Texas.
O’Reilly Auto Parts 500
Texas Motor Speedway – Fort Worth, Texas
- Winner (starting position): Kyle Busch (8th)
- Top Five: Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Jamie McMurray, Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney
- Full Results: Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Jamie McMurray, Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Darrell Wallace Jr., Clint Bowyer, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Trevor Bayne, Ty Dillon, Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher, Matt DiBenedetto, Kasey Kahne, Ross Chastain, Cole Whitt, Gray Gaulding, Landon Cassill, Harrison Rhodes, David Ragan, A.J. Allmendinger, Austin Dillon, Ryan Newman, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez, Paul Menard, Reed Sorenson, Aric Almirola, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr.
- Average Speed: 141.714 mph
- Laps Completed: 334
- Race Leaders: 8
- Laps Led: Kyle Busch (116), Kevin Harvick (87), Erik Jones (64), Kurt Busch (40, Denny Hamlin (12), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (10), Chase Elliott (4), William Byron (1)
- Pole Position: Kurt Busch (197.368 mph; 27.360 seconds)
- Hard Charger: William Byron (+23; 33rd to 10th)
- Margin of Victory: .300 seconds
- Car Count: 37
- Cars Entered: 37
- Cars Running at Finish: 26 (of 37; or 70 percent of the field)
- Drivers to Finish on Lead Lap: 10
- Cautions: 8 for 48 laps
- Lead Changes: 16
- Stage Winners: Kevin Harvick (1), Kyle Busch (2)
- Weather at Start of Race: 51 degrees Fahrenheit, cloudy, winds SE 10 mph
- Weather at End of Race: 55 degrees Fahrenheit, mostly cloudy, winds 0 mph
- Manufacturer Breakdown: Chevrolet (18); Ford (13); Toyota (6)
Notes of Interest – Race/Weekend Recap
- This is Kyle Busch’s first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season and the 44th of his career. Overall, this is Busch’s 185th victory in NASCAR’s three national series.
- This is Kyle Busch’s third Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory at Texas and his 14th win in NASCAR’s three national series.
- Busch, who entered the race as the points leader, is the fifth driver in seven races this season to win a race, joining Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer.
- Busch has now won at least one Cup Series race in all 14 of his fulltime seasons on the circuit.
- Busch is the third driver to win at least three Cup Series races at Texas, joining Jimmie Johnson (seven) and Carl Edwards (four).
- This is Busch’s first victory since the 2017 fall race at Martinsville Speedway, his first in 10 races.
- This is Busch’s fifth top-three finish, fifth top-five finish and sixth top-10 finish of the season. He leads all three categories, though he’s tied with Joey Logano in terms of top 10s.
- This is Busch’s 10th victory on a mile-and-a-half track and first since the 2016 spring race at Kansas Speedway.
- This is Busch’s first-career victory from the eighth starting position. In his last six victories (all in 2017 or 2018), Busch has won from eighth or a lower starting position (other three times came from the front row).
- Busch’s teammate Denny Hamlin was the last driver to win a race from the eighth starting position, last year’s summer race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
- Jimmie Johnson was the last driver to win a race at Texas from the eighth position, in the fall race in 2015.
- Busch won the race by three tenths of a second over Kevin Harvick, the closest finish for the series at the track since the 2010 spring race (Denny Hamlin won by .152 seconds over Jimmie Johnson).
- This is Busch’s 40th victory with Joe Gibbs Racing, which leads all drivers, and 40th career victory driving a Toyota. His first four victories came with Hendrick Motorsports in a Chevrolet.
- Busch led 116 laps, the second most laps he’s led in a race this season, and has led 15 of his 25 races at Texas. He led 128 laps in the fourth race at ISM Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, en route to finishing second to Kevin Harvick.
- Busch now has an average finish this season of 6.0, which leads all drivers who have competed in every race this season.
- The leader of the most laps in a Texas race has now won 17 times in 35 races. It marks the first time that’s happened since Jimmie Johnson led the most laps en route to winning the 2015 spring race at TMS.
- Busch has now led laps in each of the last six races, which leads all drivers. Martin Truex Jr., who had led seven consecutive races heading into Texas, failed to lead a lap. Busch, Truex and Denny Hamlin have all led six races this season.
- Busch averaged 141.714 mph in the race, the slowest speed in the last three races.
- Busch also won the second stage of the race, his second stage victory of the season.
- The race saw eight cautions for 48 laps, the most caution laps in a race at Texas since the 2014 fall race (61 caution laps).
- This is Joe Gibbs Racing’s first victory of 2018 and its seventh win at Texas.
- This is Toyota’s sixth Cup Series victory at Texas and first since the 2016 fall race, won by Carl Edwards. Toyota has won three of the last five Cup Series races at Texas.
- This marked the fourth consecutive Texas spring race that went the scheduled distance. The last race that went into overtime at Texas was the 2014 fall race.
- Kevin Harvick finished second; he was the highest-finishing Ford driver. It was Harvick’s fourth finish of first or second this season and fifth top five.
- Harvick claimed his series-leading fourth stage victory of the season in winning the first stage.
- Harvick has led a series-high 520 laps this season. This marked the 249th career race he’s led in Cup Series competition.
- Jamie McMurray, the highest-finishing Chevrolet driver, finished a season-best third, his first top-10 finish of 2018 and best result since finishing second in the 2017 spring race at Talladega Superspeedway. It was also his best finish on a mile-and-a-half track since finishing third in the 2014 fall race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
- Erik Jones finished fourth, the best finish he’s earned since joining Joe Gibbs Racing on a fulltime basis. Jones led 64 laps, the second most laps he’s ever led in a Cup Series race. It also marked the first race since Phoenix that two JGR cars finished in the top five.
- Ryan Blaney finished fifth, his third top-five finish of the 2018 season and fifth top-10 result, despite an early-race penalty.
- Blaney’s Team Penske teammate, Joey Logano, finished sixth, his sixth top-10 finish of the season, matching series leader Kyle Busch. It is Logano’s second consecutive sixth-place finish and third of 2018. Logano and Blaney have finished all but one lap this season, completing 2,144 of 2,145 contested laps.
- Polesitter Kurt Busch finished a season-best seventh, the second Stewart-Haas Racing car in the top 10. Busch earned his first pole of the season Friday, giving him poles in four consecutive seasons and at least one pole in 12 seasons on tour. Busch’s most recent pole also came at Texas.
- Darrell Wallace Jr. notched his second top-10 finish of the season and second since finishing second in the Daytona 500.
- Clint Bowyer was the third Stewart-Haas Racing driver in the top 10, as he finished ninth. It was his four top 10 of the season and first top 10 at Texas since the 2014 spring race, in which he finished eighth.
- William Byron climbed a race-high 23 positions to secure his first career top-10 finish and the best finish for Hendrick Motorsports in the race. Byron, the final driver to finish on the lead lap, also led one lap, marking the third race he’s led this season.
- Chase Elliott led four laps en route to finishing 11th. It marked Elliott’s first race led since the Daytona 500.
- Other drivers who recorded or tied season-best finishes included: Trevor Bayne (12th); Ty Dillon (13th); Matt DiBenedetto (16th); Kasey Kahne (17th); Ross Chastain (18th); Cole Whitt (19th); Gray Gaulding (20th); Landon Cassill (21st); Harrison Rhodes (22nd; career-best); and Reed Sorenson (31st).
- Chris Buescher, the only Texas native, finished 15th.
- Martin Truex Jr. finished 37th (last), the first time he’s finished last since the 2016 fall race at ISM Raceway.
- A total of 21 drivers improved on their starting position in the race.
- This is the third race out of seven this season in which one driver has not led at least half of the race’s laps.
- The 37-car field marked the smallest field ever for a Cup Series race at Texas (previous low was 40 in each of the previous four races at the track).
- Twenty-six cars finished the race, one more than the fewest number of drivers to finish a race this season (set in the Daytona 500).
- The next race will be Sunday, April 15, with the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee.
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