NASCAR Xfinity Series at Chicago 2015 Results: Winner, Standings and Reaction
Matt Kenseth almost stole it at the end, but Kyle Busch was able to hold him off and win the Furious 7 300 at the Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday night in Joliet, Illinois. Kenseth briefly took the lead on the next-to-last lap, but Busch stayed calm and took the lead back just before they hit the final lap.
It was a thrilling win. The victory marked Busch's fourth of the season on the Xfinity Series. It was his 74th of his career on the series overall. He has the most wins in the series by far of any driver. Xfinity Series congratulated the winner:
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Here's a look at the top-10 results:
| 1 | Kyle Busch | 102 |
| 2 | Matt Kenseth | 84 |
| 3 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | 3 |
| 4 | Paul Menard | 0 |
| 5 | Ty Dillon | 0 |
| 6 | Daniel Suarez | 2 |
| 7 | Chris Buescher | 0 |
| 8 | Elliott Sadler | 0 |
| 9 | Regan Smith | 0 |
| 10 | Brendan Gaughan | 0 |
NASCAR.com has the full results.
Busch (102) and Kenseth (84) dominated the action, leading a total of 186 of the 200 laps in the race. The top finisher from the Xfinity Series was 21-year-old Darrell Wallace Jr. who finished third. It was a career-best performance for Wallace Jr., but he's not satisfied with what he called a "sixth-place car," per Chris Knight of Catch Fence:
On the strength of his fifth-place performance, Ty Dillon was able to leapfrog Chase Elliott into second place in the Xfinity Series standings. Here's a look at the top 10:
| 1 | Chris Buescher | 60 | 945 | Leader | 2 |
| 2 | Ty Dillon | 3 | 920 | -25 | 0 |
| 3 | Chase Elliott | 9 | 917 | -28 | 1 |
| 4 | Regan Smith | 7 | 894 | -51 | 1 |
| 5 | Elliott Sadler | 1 | 839 | -106 | 0 |
| 6 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | 6 | 838 | -107 | 0 |
| 7 | Daniel Suarez | 18 | 830 | -115 | 0 |
| 8 | Brian Scott | 2 | 825 | -120 | 0 |
| 9 | Brendan Gaughan | 62 | 798 | -147 | 0 |
| 10 | Ryan Reed | 16 | 716 | -229 | 1 |
You can see the full table at NASCAR.com.
After last week's win at the Virginia529 College Savings 250, Elliott fell off in a major way this week. He finished 14th and thus surrendered major ground to Dillon and to points leader Chris Buescher.
The latter's seventh-place finished was good enough to maintain a 25-point lead over Dillon, but with seven races still remaining on the schedule, there's plenty of time for the top three spots to change.
Next week, the series heads to the Kentucky Speedway for the VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300. Last year Brendan Gaughan took the checkered flag in this event, if he's able to pull off another victory, it would be his first of the 2015 season.
He's currently ninth in the Xfinity Series standings and in need of a big performance. Then again, that's the case with several drivers in the series. With the Sprint Cup Series playoffs beginning on Sunday, the young drivers will take center stage.
The battle between Dillon and Elliott is one that should continue through the rest of the Xfinity Series season. Neither man has been able to establish consistency, and there’s little reason to believe someone will pull away the rest of the way.
It should be an exciting race in Kentucky. We'll see you next week.
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