Busch clinched his spot into the third round of the playoffs following stage two of the race as he kept his No. 18 Camry running in the top five throughout the day. He went on to finish runner-up and looks ahead to the next round where he’ll compete at three tracks that he’s had plenty of recent success at – Martinsville Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and ISM Raceway.
Truex battled an ill-handling car throughout much of the race, but a strong pit crew kept him in the front of the field and he was able to capture a fifth-place finish. Erik Jones finished just ahead Truex in fourth, his third-consecutive top-10 finish.
The point standings reset in the next round of the playoffs as Busch returns to the top of the leaderboard in first while Truex is third.
Overall, just proud of the effort. We haven’t quite run like this here in the last little bit, so it’s nice to be able to come out here with a strong run, especially with kind of what we think we have going on for Texas and Homestead with it being a 1.5-mile. ~ Kyle Busch, No. 18 M&M’s Halloween Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
“It was definitely a tough day – a blue collared day for sure. We worked hard. The guys never gave up on the car, they just kept working on it for me and I just kept trying to get all I could out of it. Pit crew really saved our butts today man, they were unbelievable. That’s definitely something you need going down the stretch here for a championship and we’ll regroup and go to Martinsville next week and try to go get a win.” ~ Martin Truex Jr. - No. 78 Bass Pro Shops / 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing