Busch Scores First Victory In No. 8 NASCAR Chevy At Fontana 2023: Video

Kyle Busch only recently turned his back on his Toyota-supported race team to take control of the No. 8 NASCAR Chevy Camaro ZL1, and it only took two races for him to find Victory Lane once again. He took home the trophy in the Cup Series race at Fontana on February 26^th, 2023.

Ross Chastain, driver of the No. 1 Camaro, led the most laps around the two-mile oval track in California, and did his best to valiantly hold off the No. 8 Camaro of Busch as the race wound down. However, Busch’s No. 8 Camaro completed the pass for good on Lap 180, stretching his lead to 2.998 seconds over second-place Chase Elliott in the No. 9 Camaro at the finish line.

“I can’t thank [team owners] Richard and Judy [Childress] enough, [teammate] Austin [Dillon] for calling me and getting me talking and getting me the opportunity to come over here to [Richard Childress Racing],” said Busch, who served a speeding penalty early in the race, but bounced back at the end. He went on, “You put yourself in a different situation and you’re able to reward your guys. It’s not about me always winning, but about the guys. I’ve worked with a lot of great people who’ve given me a lot of great opportunities in my career. It’s awesome to be able to reward them.”

Elliott’s second-place effort behind the wheel of the No. 9 NASCAR Chevy should certainly not be overlooked. Since Saturday’s qualifying session was rained out and the lineup was set by formula instead of on-track speed, Elliott’s No. 9 Camaro started 31^st. Clearly, he had one of the fastest race cars in the field.

“Yeah, just really proud of our team,” Elliott said. “We obviously didn’t run very good there toward the end of the year last year, and just everybody really went to work hard over the winter to try and get better.”

As a reminder, Sunday’s racing events marked the finale of Auto Club Speedway as a two-mile oval asphalt. Much of its property has been sold off already, and there are unconfirmed plans in the works to configure it into a half-mile short track, although NASCAR recently stated that it is evaluating market interest in the area. As such, the future of NASCAR’s presence in Fontana is unclear.

# – Rookie
i – Points ineligible
* – Part-time driver

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