Kyle Busch was in a league of his own on Saturday during the Winter Showdown at Kern County Raceway.
Not even a caution with five laps to go could offset a dominant performance by the 2015 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion, whom has collected over $50,000 during the off-season by winning the two most prestigious Super Late Model events in country in the Showdown and December’s Snowball Derby.
“This means the world to me,” Busch said on the MAVTV pay-per-view broadcast. “This is something I’m passionate about. I love short track racing. I love the Super Late Model ranks. We’ve won everywhere, but I don’t think I’ve won in California in one of these cars, which is cool to do here, because of the competition.
“The competition here, there’s no slouches on the Southwest Tour.”
After finishing third in the 300 lapper last year, Busch led the final 238 laps and it wasn’t even close.
The winning pass came on lap 62 when Busch overtook defending winner Derek Thorn in Turn 4 of the Southern California half-mile.
Local driver Buddy Shepherd won the pole, but just didn’t have enough to reel in Busch over the final laps, and didn’t have the best restart when it mattered the most with five laps remaining. He finished 1.7 seconds behind Busch.
He finished the race in a side-by-side duel with teammate and NASCAR star Daniel Hemric.
“To finish second to one of the best in the world makes you feel pretty good,” Shepherd said. “We’ll take what we learned and come back stronger next year.”
Thorn led the first 62 laps before a blistered right front tire slowed him for the remainder of the event.
There were six caution flags, three for crashes and three for controlled stops similar to the Snowball Derby.
The complete results of the Kern County Winter Showdown can be found below.
- Kyle Busch
- Buddy Shepherd
- Daniel Hemric
- Ty Majeski
- Noah Gragson
- Derek Kraus
- Chris Davidson
- Dominic Ursetta
- Derek Thorn
- Craig Raudman
- Jace Hansen
- Eric Holmes
- John Moore
- Austin Herzog
- Bobby Hodges
- Mason Mingus
- Tyler Tanner
- Jack Wood
- Eric Schmidt
- M.K. Kanke
- Preston Peltier
- Jeremy Doss
- Tyler Ankrum
- Jeff Bischofberger
- Logan Bearden
- Tracy Bolin
- David Mayhew
- Blaine Rocha
- Chris Eggleston
- Cole Williams
- Bob Lyon
- Carlos Vieira
- Luke Hall
- Dan Holtz
- Eddy McKean
- Scott Sanchez
Note: Short Track Scene was not at this event but watched online via the Lucas Oil Racing TV Pay-Per-View broadcast.
Read more Short Track Scene:
- PASS to promote new Late Model event at Richmond Raceway
- CARS Tour offers souped-up loyalty program for LMSCs in 2018
- Lee Pulliam retires from full-time racing
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Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.
