Kyle Busch pulls off hat trick Tuesday night at Berlin Raceway

Kyle Busch pulls off hat trick Tuesday night at Berlin Raceway

By Steve Kaminski
| Skaminsk@mlive.com MLive.com

MARNE – Kyle Busch may rub people the wrong way during his ventures in the NASCAR ranks, and he has been fined, put on probation and even suspended all during the past year. Busch is loved in Marne, though.

Approximately 6,000 fans turned out to watch Busch win Tuesday night’s ARCA/Super Series Rowdy 251 at Berlin Raceway, marking the third consecutive year that the Las Vegas native has won the race held in his honor. Busch led the race’s final 38 laps, driving away from Chase Elliott and Coopersville’s Johnny VanDoorn down the stretch.

Busch began Tuesday’s program by participating in an autograph session with Travis Pastrana that lasted more than an hour. He capped the evening with a cloud of smoke, which he created on the frontstretch after taking the checkered flag.

“I say it all the time, but I love coming here because these are a great bunch of guys,” said Busch, who drives the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. “I like to come to Berlin not just to race, but to see the competitors, my friends like Brian Campbell, Johnny VanDoorn, Chase Elliott and Ross Kenseth. I like to see them and I like to see how they are progressing.

“We were racing against a great group of guys tonight. I wasn’t sure how it was all going to play down there, but I was giving it all I had at the end.”

This marked the fourth year that Busch has raced at Berlin in a weeknight special. Brian Campbell of Wyoming, who finished sixth Tuesday, won it the first year, with Busch winning the past three.

Busch earned $18,000 for Tuesday’s win. Busch, 27, has won 24 career Sprint Cup races, and he is currently 12th in the season point standings, with his lone victory coming at Richmond. He planned to head to Sonoma, Calif., for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race after leaving Marne.

Tuesday’s race was slowed by six cautions and two red flags. The final caution fell on lap 228 when Tim DeVos spun in turn three. Busch led Elliott when the race resumed on lap 233 before pulling away for a 1.268 second victory. Tom Thomas of Grandville was fourth, while Ross Kenseth was fifth.

“I didn’t have anything for Kyle,” said Elliott, the son of 1988 Sprint Cup champion Bill Elliott. “It’s disappointing, but one of these days, we are going to figure it out and beat him.”

VanDoorn set fast time in qualifying with a lap of 97.231 mph, edging out Busch for the pole. Busch started the race 15th once the inversion was completed and VanDoorn 16th. The two sliced their way through the field, and when the mandatory caution waved at the race’s midpoint, Busch was running first, while VanDoorn was second.

“I told Kyle that I may never get a Cup, Nationwide or Truck ride, but you know what, I beat you for the pole,” VanDoorn said. “So that was kind of neat.

“Congratulations to those guys. Any time you can come away finishing third to teams that have Sprint Cup affiliations, that’s always cool. I’m just really thankful to be able to race against those guys.”

Pastrana finished 24th in his Berlin debut. He eventually dropped out on lap 178 after separating his shoulder during the race while making contact with another car.

Also Tuesday, Coopersville’s Adam Chase won his second Modified feature of the season when he outran Trevor Berry to the checkered flag by 0.829 seconds, followed by Kevin DeGood and Ryan Hamm.

“We found something a couple of weeks ago, and the car has been awesome every since,” Chase said. “We knocked off two feature wins, the crew has been great. We ran two laps of practice and two laps of qualifying, and we knew the car was good. I qualified fifth, and we knew the car was good.”

TUESDAY NIGHT RESULTS

CRA SUPER SERIE ROWDY 251 (251 LAPS) – 1. Kyle Busch, 2. Chase Elliott, 3. Johnny VanDoorn, 4. Tom Thomas, 5. Ross Kenseth, 6. Brian Campbell, 7. Bubba Pollard, 8. Terry VanHaitsma, 9. Boris Jurkovic, 10. Tim DeVos, 11. Daniel Hemric, 12. Erik Jones, 13. Austin Theriault, 14. Travis Braden, 15. Brandon Hermiller, 16. Ross Meeuwsen, 17. Jay Niewiek, 18. Jordan Dahlke, 19. Kyle Jones, 20. Kenzie Ruston, 21. Mark Lambert, 22. Terry Senneker Jr., 23. Alec Carll, 24. Travis Pastrana, 25. Dave Lake, 26. Seth Moody, 27. Chad Finley, 28. Chris Anthony, 29. Ben Kennedy, 30. Lee VanDyk

CRA SUPER SERIES LAST CHANCE (15 LAPS) – 1. Boris Jurkovic, 2. Bubba Pollard, 3. Ben Kennedy, 4. Mark Lambert, 5. Lee VanDyk, 6. Jordan Dahlke, 7. Justin Alsip, 8. Josh Hobson, 9. Peter Cozzolino, 10. Lauren Bush, 11. Gabe Ensing, 12. Nick Szotko

MODIFIEDS (51 LAPS) – 1. Adam Chase, 2. Trevor Berry, 3. Kevin DeGood, 4. Ryan Hamm, 5. Billy Shotko, 6. Billy Eppink, 7. Nyle Wieler, 8. Dan Loughan, 9. Damon Breedlove, 10. Randy DeBoer, 11. Joe Axsom, 12. Ryan Gruppen, 13. Samantha Jansen, 14. Ron Landis, 15. Jeff Vrsek, 16. Wayne Haughton, 17. Rob Shoemaker, 18. Mark Bott, 19. Ben Welch, 20. Gregg Campbell, 21. Tom Jewell, 22. Charles Cochran

QUALIFYING – Johnny VanDoorn (CRA Super Series) 97.231 mph, Kevin DeGood (Modifieds) 89.913 mph