Kyle Busch wins GEICO 500 in double overtime

Published 6:54 pm Sunday, April 23, 2023

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TALLADEGA – Kyle Busch’s son, Brexton, is already signing autographs in victory lane, and for good reason.

Kyle Busch won his second Cup Series race of the season today in double overtime in the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Busch’s 62nd career victory came after late wrecks in Stage 3 pushed the 500-mile race into extra time.

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“It’s an awesome win for all of us,” Busch said. “The last lap was crazy. We got a big push from (Mobile native) Bubba Wallace, and we got a little too far out from him. I knew not to block him.”

In the deciding lap, Wallace had the lead and went to block in turn one. He ended up crashing into No. 12’s Ryan Blaney.

Busch then scooted on through.

“It was pretty squirrely in (turn one),” Busch said. “I thought the best thing was to get the hell out of the way. Fortunately, for us, we snuck right through.”

Blaney, who led for a chunk of the race, said when you get into be runs, you take the when you can.

“In my mind, I’m glad everyone’s OK, but in my mind, you try and triple block, you can’t block three times,” Blaney said. “Bubba was trying to block, which is right thing to do; I think he tried to block three times. I’m not blaming anybody. It’s just hard racing.”

Blaney finished second; Chris Buescher finished third; Chase Briscoe finished fourth; and Brad Keselowski finished fifth to round out the top five. Keselowski began the race 20th.

Early in Stage 1, Michael McDowell crashed, but came back in the race. He finished 35th.

Once the drivers began drafting in the opening stage, the race picked up.

Chase Elliott, who finished 12th, won the first stage. Aric Almirola won the second stage.

During the last stage, Harrison Burton spun out, but saved himself with good driving.

Much of the race patterns saw three-wide, and sometimes four-wide on the 2.5-mile racetrack.

Next Sunday, the Cup Series will restart at Dover in the 400-lap 1-mile monster. The race starts at 1 p.m. CST.

This story will be updated.