Kyle Busch wins Xfinity Series race in Las Vegas for first time

Kyle Busch led all but one of the 200 laps Saturday to earn his first career Xfinity Series at his home track.

Busch scored a Cup victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2009, but was 0-for-11 in his previous starts in NASCAR’s second tier series.

The victory for Busch was his 78th in the Xfinity Series, and second consecutive this season. He also won last weekend at Atlanta.

“It feels really good for as good as this car was,” said Busch. “It was really, really fast. This is 2-for-2 and that’s pretty cool, and to check this one off the box is awesome, too.”

He put a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the Vegas victory lane for the first time in team history in the Xfinity Series. The JGR drivers went 1-2-3 in a sweep of the podium as Daniel Suarez finished second and Erik Jones came from two laps down to finish third.

Darrell Wallace Jr. was the only driver to lead one lap.

Suarez’s finish moved him to the lead in the points standings. He’s got a three-point lead over Elliott Sadler.

“It took me too much time to figure out how to be fast in a loose race car in traffic,” Suarez said of his inability to challenge teammate Busch.

Jones, who was penalized for speeding and then caught speeding again as he went to pit road to serve his punishment, was two laps down after the gaffes.

“Just wish we could have been in contention all day,” said Jones, who believed he had “a car that could run with Kyle at times.”

NASCAR needed a red-flag stoppage after a multi-car accident when Cody Ware spun in the second turn. Ware was a single-car crash, but NASCAR didn’t seem to see his disabled vehicle and was slow to call for a caution.

As cars barreled down on Ware, they tried to avoid him but Wallace collided with Ware as he tried to duck low around Ware’s car.

“God, Almighty, that hurt,” Wallace said on his team radio.

Wallace was disappointed after running inside the top-10, but didn’t cast blame on anyone. He said by the time he saw Ware, it was too late for him to miss hitting him in some form.

“To come out with a destroyed race car, I can’t even say wrecked, it is done, killed. It is just unfortunate and I hate it for my guys,” Wallace said.

Sprint Cup drivers have now won all three Xfinity Series races this weekend, and only 11 cars finished on the lead lap Saturday.