The green flag waved once more with 23 to go, seeing Busch hold serve over Harvick in second but the duo never more than four to six car lengths apart as they danced in an out of traffic in the final stages.
Though Harvick closed to within two cars lengths inside the final 10 laps, Busch kept his No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota in the wind to take home a trophy in his sponsor’s hometown.
Busch said afterwards that though Harvick likely had the better car, he had the motivation to win.
“(Harvick) was probably a tick faster overall than we were, but I just had to do everything I could to hit my marks and focus on making sure I did what I needed to do to block his air a little bit,” said Busch. “This Interstate Batteries Camry was awesome today. I really want to thank them. This is their home town and Norm Miller is here, so it means a lot more to win this one here in Texas, for sure.
“This has been a trying couple of months, I guess. After Daytona, we’d just been on a roll of finishing really well, and I’ve been really pumped up and excited about the momentum we’ve been carrying … but frustrated at the same time that we couldn’t close the deal. I wanted to get to victory lane and I’m glad we were finally able to accomplish that today. This feels awesome. I wanted this one bad today.”
Harvick was extremely frustrated to come home as the bridesmaid on a day when he felt as though he had the car to win his fourth Cup Series race of the year, blasting his pit crew after climbing from his car.
“We were just fortunate that our Busch Light Ford was as fast as it was, so that we could cover up what was just an absolutely pathetic two days on pit road,” said Harvick. “We had a really fast car, but Kyle’s car was just fast enough to where I needed to go the entire length of a run to be able to make up the ground that I needed to.
“My car just didn’t turn as well in traffic there towards the end. I’ve just gotta thank everyone at Stewart-Haas Raicng and everyone on my team for putting together a really fast car, but this definitely isn’t what we were hoping for.”
Sunday marked the eighth time Busch and Harvick have finished first and second in the Cup Series, as well as the third time this season.
Jamie McMurray finished a season-high third, followed by Jones and Ryan Blaney.
Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Wallace, Clint Bowyer and rookie William Byron completed the top 10.
Defending series champion Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson both had right-front tire failures in the first half of Sunday’s race, failing to finish after hard hits to the outside wall. Both drivers were uninjured.
