Kyle Busch Nabs Victory In Wild Finish Of Time-Shortened Truck Race

While it doesn't reset the count on his career-long NASCAR Cup Series winless drought, Kyle Busch was able to grab a confidence-building victory on Saturday afternoon in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Fr8 Racing 208 at EchoPark Speedway.

Kyle Busch WINS the @NASCAR_Trucks race in Atlanta! What a show. pic.twitter.com/azkFnj9PAF
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 21, 2026

Driving the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado, Busch came out on top of a thrilling battle at the front of the pack in the closing laps of the race, which was shortened to 125 laps, 10 laps short of the scheduled distance, due to time constraints following a lengthy weather delay before the start of the race.

With frantic racing at the front of the pack, which saw the running order continue to shuffle throughout the closing laps, many contenders came and went, but there was a constant near the front, Busch, and his Spire Motorsports teammate, Carson Hocevar, who didn't let anyone come between them.

Busch says early in the event, he had doubts as to whether Hocevar would work with him throughout the race, but as it became crunch time, he was pleased by the teamwork shown by the driver of the No. 77 machine, which secured a top-two finish for Spire Motorsports.

"@CarsonHocevar was a great teammate today ... If he gives me a hat, I might wear a hat."- @KyleBusch pic.twitter.com/bmwvPQovsB
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 21, 2026

"Yeah, this is cool, but huge help from behind. You know, Carson Hocevar was a great teammate today," Busch said in his victory interview on FS1. "Early on in the race, I was like, 'Wait a second, okay, same old Carson,' but as we got towards the end, we started working together, and we started being able to maneuver our way through. At the end of the second Stage, there, I was behind him, pushing him, and we were able to ratchet forward. And there at the end, he was my wingman."

The win is the 68th of Busch's legendary NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career, and the driver has now won at least won race in the NASCAR Truck Series in 14 consecutive seasons.

Busch will now look to parlay the momentum of Saturday's win into a win in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Autotrader 400. Busch carries a career-long 94-race winless streak into that race.

Hocevar says the choice to push Busch to the victory was a business decision.

"I had no shot to win the race. So, if I wasn't going to have a shot, I was going to make sure the company had a shot," Hocevar said. "That was great. I went over to just high-five him because I thought it would be a good picture, be good for the marketing team, and good for the social. That was a business decision right there to do that."

Despite coming up one spot shy of his sixth career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win, perhaps Hocevar gained a little bit of respect from Busch and other NASCAR Cup Series drivers on Saturday, and maybe that will be the difference for him on Sunday, as he continues to seek his first career NASCAR Cup Series win.

Busch and Hocevar will start 14th and 15th in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series event after Saturday's qualifying session was scratched due to the weather.

Gio Ruggiero, who scored his first-career win at Talladega Superspeedway in the Fall, came up just shy of a second career victory as he finished third behind the duo of Busch and Hocevar.

Ben Rhodes, who was near the front all race long, had to battle back from running out of fuel at the end of Stage 2. Rhodes was able to pull it off, and nearly found a way to win the race. However, the rally stalled out with a fourth-place finish.

Corey Heim, who took home 12 wins a season ago, came home fifth in his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race of the season, driving the No. 1 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. Heim took a Stage win in his return to the truck series.

Chandler Smith, the Daytona race winner, Jake Garcia, John Hunter Nemechek, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Justin Haley rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.

With his sixth-place finish, Smith continues to hold the lead in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship standings. Smith will exit back-to-back superspeedway events to start the season with a 28-point advantage over Ruggiero, while two-time series champion Ben Rhodes sits third, 35 points back.

Haley's 10th-place result marks the first top-10 finish for Ram Trucks in its return after a 13-year hiatus in NASCAR, and Haley was followed across the line by Ty Dillon, driver of the No. 25 Ram Truck, who finished 11th.

And one of the most remarkable finishes of the day belongs to Adam Andretti, who was able to snag a 12th-place result in his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut. Driving the No. 5 TRICON Garage Toyota, Andretti started inside the top-10, but was shaky early on in the draft. Andretti would eventually go for a spin, which wouldn't bring out a caution, and he would go on to lose a lap.

Late in the race, Andretti got the lap back, and began to climb his way back through the field, and he ended the day with a very respectible finish in his series debut.

Next up for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is the inaugural street race at St. Petersburg on Saturday, February 28. That race will be televised on FOX with television coverage set to begin at 12:00 PM ET. The NASCAR Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the event.

Fr8 Racing 208 Race Results

Fin	Truck	Driver	Laps	Points
1	7	Kyle Busch (i)	125	0
2	77	Carson Hocevar (i)	125	0
3	17	Gio Ruggiero	125	40
4	99	Ben Rhodes	125	42
5	1	Corey Heim (S1)	125	44
6	38	Chandler Smith	125	38
7	98	Jake Garcia	125	34
8	62	John Hunter Nemechek (i)	125	0
9	45	Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (i)	125	0
10	16	Justin Haley	125	27
11	25	Ty Dillon (i)	125	0
12	5	Adam Andretti	125	25
13	10	Daniel Dye	125	24
14	18	Tyler Ankrum	125	23
15	44	Andres Perez de Lara	125	29
16	12	Brenden Queen #	125	21
17	42	Tyler Reif	125	20
18	81	Kris Wright	125	19
19	14	Mini Tyrrell #	124	18
20	52	Stewart Friesen (S2)	124	32
21	11	Kaden Honeycutt	123	19
22	9	Grant Enfinger	123	15
23	2	Clayton Green	123	14
24	22	Josh Reaume	123	13
25	33	Frankie Muniz	123	12
26	76	Spencer Boyd	120	11
27	34	Layne Riggs	119	11
28	88	Ty Majeski	119	15
29	69	Tyler Tomassi	119	8
30	15	Tanner Gray (X)	116	8
31	13	Cole Butcher #	100	6
32	26	Dawson Sutton	100	5
33	93	Caleb Costner	99	4
34	19	Daniel Hemric	88	5
35	90	Justin Carroll	65	2
36	91	Christian Eckes	2	1

(S1) Stage 1 winner
(S2) Stage 2 winner
(X) Xfinity Fastest Lap
# Rookie of the Year contender
(i) ineligible to score points

Time of Race: 1 hour, 28 minutes, 9 seconds
Average Speed: 131.027 mph
Margin of Victory: 0.114 seconds
Cautions: 3 for 18 laps
Lead Changes: 14 among 5 drivers