Kyle Busch gets third RCR win in elongated day at Gateway

Kyle Busch won for the third time in 2023 at World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday, tying him with William Byron for the most NASCAR Cup wins this season after 15 races.

Busch won from the pole, and throughout the day, he held off the likes of last weekend’s winner Ryan Blaney, former teammate Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson to get the checkered flag at the St. Louis area track.

The race had all the makings of a great show. The grandstands were sold out for the third consecutive weekend, and it seemed like the race wouldn’t be the lengthy type of event that the Coca-Cola 600 is. It felt like it’d be more of a sprint as it was only a 300-mile race on the 1.25-mile oval.

But lightning and a bit of rain delayed the race for almost two hours on Sunday, and if you were a race fan at home watching on TV, you might have used the time to watch a wild IndyCar Series race on the streets of Detroit.

Shortly after Alex Palou took the checkered flag in Detroit, the Cup race was ready to resume. Busch was in the top five throughout the afternoon and proved he would be the car to beat.

Notably, Corey LaJoie and Carson Hocevar got opportunities to showcase their talents after Chase Elliott was suspended for a race for wrecking Denny Hamlin at Charlotte. LaJoie drove the No. 9 for Hendrick Motorsports since Josh Berry wasn’t available following an Xfinity race weekend in Portland, Oregon. And 20-year-old prospect Carson Hocevar drover the No. 7 for Spire Motorsports in place of LaJoie.

Hocevar had a strong day going up until a brake rotor problem led to him crashing and ending his day while he was in 16th. Meanwhile, LaJoie, finished 21st. LaJoie has been hopeful of a chance to race in a car with more horses, but Sunday didn’t go as he’d have liked in a one-off with a top NASCAR team. To make matters worse, Hocevar outran LaJoie for the first half of the race in his own ride.

“I had a blast. Just so thankful for the opportunity. I don’t have a job for next year. I know Al Niece and Cody Efaw want me to run for them, and I will forever run a race or however many. But man, I’m just so thankful that they gave me the opportunity – the opportunity to drive an Xfinity car and now driving a Cup car,” Hocevar said. “I was running 16th. Just so surreal for the first time ever. I thought we were going to have a good day and be in a good spot for Schluter Systems, Celsius, Spire Motorsports, Ryan Sparks, and the No. 7 Chevy team. Hopefully, that call for a Cup ride isn’t the only one I get in my life.”

For Busch, it was about as perfect of a day as one could expect.

“To sit on the pole, lead a lot of laps; my guys did just a great job today. It was pretty flawless for us. All the fans go out and celebrate with us,” Busch said. “We’re going to have a great time with this one. This one is pretty cool.”

Busch now has 63 career Cup wins and appears to be a championship contender despite RCR’s shortcomings over recent years. The team hasn’t enjoyed all that much success with Austin Dillon in the No. 3, and when it lost Tyler Reddick after last year to 23XI Racing, Childress knew he had to find a replacement of Reddick’s caliber.

Busch has won at Fontana, Talladega, and now Gateway. It’s been a career resurgence for him after winning only four races in the last three years.

During the broadcast, Fox Sports had a power outage that led to much anger from fans on social media. Twitter users were calling for NBC Sports to take the reigns of NASCAR’s 2023 coverage, but it feels hard to blame Fox Sports for such an incident. It wasn’t a problem with the broadcast itself — it was a power outage, and an incident like that isn’t necessarily a problem that Fox Sports has control over.

NBC Sports will be here soon enough as they take over after next weekend’s race at Sonoma Raceway, but there are facets of Fox Sports’ NASCAR broadcasts that make the show worthwhile. Mike Joy is a racing historian, and Clint Bowyer is animated but educated about racing. And although Michael Waltrip is a goofy character, he does provide entertainment during the pre-race Grid Walk segments.

NASCAR is nearing the halfway point of its overall season and has 11 events left until the playoffs. Several drivers are still looking to clinch postseason berths, including Ross Chastain, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, who returns next week, and Kevin Harvick, who is in his final full-time season.