Kyle Busch, the driver of the #18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 8, 2018, in Fort Worth, Texas. Photo – Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

After one weekend of short track racing, NASCAR heads to No Limits, Texas for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500. Texas Motor Speedway is a mile and a half track that is still fresh after their repave a few years ago. The repave still makes the track slick causing drivers some issues with grip. Jimmie Johnson gained some momentum last year when he picked up his first win of the season at Texas Motor Speedway. He is always a favorite at this track and is one to never count out of the competition. Although his finish this weekend was a disappointing 35th after an incident taking him out of the race.

Kurt Busch took the green flag from the pole position. It was second straight year starting the race from the front. A few laps into the race, Alex Bowman wrecked and brought Daniel Suarez and Paul Menard with him. Moments before the wreck, Kevin Harvick grabbed the early lead. He was able to keep up his lead throughout the first stage taking the ten points at the end. Also in stage one, Martin Truex Jr. cut a right front tire and hit the wall hard exiting his turn. The incident took Truex out of the race as his crew was unable to repair the car.

Kyle Busch restarted the second stage in the first position as he and Harvick were able to run away from the field. Kyle Larson cut a right front tire as well and had a hard hit against the wall. He was unable to finish the race similar to Truex Jr. After the restart, Kyle Busch and Harvick gave way to Kurt Busch as he took his first lead of the race since starting the race from the pole position. Kurt Busch ended up leading until the end of stage two where he picked up a stage win.

During the third stage, Aric Almirola caused Denny Hamlin to get loose causing him to collide with Brad Keselowski and few other drivers from the biggest wreck of the day. Keselowski and Hamlin were taken out of contention due to this wreck.

Erik Jones took the lead after the restart and led all the way through the end of the first cycle of green flag stops. Harvick was a lap down during the green flag cycle and did not come in to stop and was able to gain his lap back. Also, just after the cycle, Menard caused a caution and Harvick ended up in the second position. So not only did Harvick gain his lap back, but he also gained track position to get back into contention to win the race.

A few other names were able to creep up into contention. Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace Jr, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, and Ryan Newman stayed out longer than the rest of the field, trying gain track position. Newman stayed out a few laps too long as he fell victim to blowing his right front tire.

This allowed for some drama as a very important restart was about to happen. Kyle Busch vs. Kevin Harvick; a restart between two very even teams and even cars. Both drivers had excellent restarts, as they separated themselves from the rest of the field. Busch edged off Harvick and never looked back. Harvick stayed tight on Busch, but could not gain any momentum. Busch closed the race flawlessly and picked up his first win of the season.Kyle Busch finally gets it done. He has finished second a handful of times and just could not seem to catch a break in this young season. Harvick looked as if he was taken out of contention to win earlier in the race.

Harvick had some breakdowns on pit road and lost a lot of the momentum he had earlier in the race and was able to make it a close race in the end. However, Kyle Busch edges off Harvick to get his season going. It is not a matter of “if” Kyle Busch will win, but a matter of “when” will he win.

Everyone anticipates him to get off to a quick start in the season, but last year it took him awhile to get going. Watch out for Busch because once he gets on a roll, he is tough to stop. He will always be a fast driver and one to worry about. Sunday was a traditional day for him as his team worked very well. He had good pit stops under caution as well as under the green flag. Look out for these next few races as Kyle Busch likes to win a few in a row to let everyone know how dominant he can be.