RacinToday.com

Kyle Busch won his fifth Camping World Truck Series race of the season Saturday when he out-dueled Kevin Harvick and James Buescher at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Busch started from the pole and got the fifth victory in just 11 starts. It was his 21st career victory in the series. He led 156 of the 175 laps.

Buescher finished second – .2 seconds behind Busch – after giving up the lead on a restart with three laps to go.

Harvick was third.

Busch and Harvick fought like crazy for the whole race. They exchanged the lead repeatedly.

“It was man, it was a close race,” Busch said.  “Myself and (Kevin) Harvick just battled it out all day long.”

Busch was able to work his way to a comfortable lead late but a series of cautions kept things tight.

On a restart with 12 laps to go, Harvick pulled along side of Busch for the lead. Harvick bumped Busch and they both went up the track. Buescher went low and passed both. He appeared headed to the victory but a caution with six laps to go set up the final restart.

Busch eased past Buescher but the two made contact and Busch bounced off the wall. He was able, however, to stay ahead of Buescher and Harvick and got the victory.

“On the restart before that, I kind of got washed up into the marbles and stuff. Unfortunately I got back there, behind the 31 (Buescher). On that last restart, I knew I needed to have a good run through (turns) one and two. If I didn’t clear him off of (Turn) Two, he was going to run all the way down the back straightaway and side draft me and get back alongside of me and get me loose in (Turn) Three. I knew I had to clear him regardless of what was going to happen, I had to clear him.

“I tried rubbing off on him and he was still there a little bit and it turned me in the wall. It was a hard hit, it knocked my helmet crooked. I wasn’t sure what I had getting down into turn three but those guys got to racing back there and the truck felt fine through three and four. I was surprised really that it felt the way it did and we were just able to mosey around for the next couple laps and bring it home. I was glad that it was OK enough to drive.

“I’m sure after 30 laps or so it would get tight because it knocked the fender in pretty bad. Overall it wasn’t that bad, but you have to do what you have to do in order to win the races coming down towards the end and the last restart on a green-white-checker, you got to go.”

Matt Crafton finished fourth and Austin Dillon was fifth.

Points leader Todd Bodine finished ninth. Defending series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. crashed late and finished 24th.

(This story will be updated shortly)

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