MADISON, Illinois — Kyle Busch survived lightning delays, red flag periods, and an overtime restart to win the NASCAR Cup Series race at Gateway Motorsports Park.
Busch started on the pole and led a race-high 121 laps on his way to winning the Enjoy Illinois 300, his third victory of the season. Busch held off Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson on the race's final restart to secure the win.
"It was pretty awesome to sit on the pole, lead a lot of laps, and have my guys do such a great job," said Busch to the media after the race.
The race made it just one lap before Tyler Reddick spun running around the top 10. While the field ran under caution, lightning strikes were detected near the track and delayed the race for over an hour and a half.
When the race finally resumed, Busch and Ryan Blaney traded the lead throughout stage one. Busch ultimately prevailed to win the first stage.
Blaney grabbed the lead back in stage two and looked to be in a good position to take his second win in a row after ending a 51-race winless streak at Charlotte last week.
Red flags and broken rotors
Brake rotor issues spoiled several drivers' days, creating some hard crashes and red-flag delays in the process.
Carson Hocevar, making his Cup Series debut in the No. 7 for Corey LaJoie (who was replacing the suspended Chase Elliott), was running in the top 20 for the first part of the race until a brake rotor broke on his car and forced him to slam the wall and ending his day on lap 91.
Reddick found his way to the lead after stage two by taking just two tires on a pitstop while the leaders took four tires. The move initially paid off for Reddick as he ran in the top 10 early in the green flag run.
That was, until lap 173 when he also lost a brake rotor and slammed the wall. Reddick finished 35th
The third brake rotor victim came on lap 198 when Noah Gragson had one break. Gragson spun around and collided hard with the wall but was able to walk away uninjured. The race was red-flagged as officials cleaned up the track.
Bubba Wallace was the race's final brake rotor victim. Wallace was running in 11th with under 10 laps to go when he had a brake rotor break, causing him to hit the wall and end his day.
The race's third red flag happened after a crash between Austin Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. caused damage to the turn one wall.
Notable finishes
Busch earned his 63rd Cup Series win with the victory. It's the 12th time he's won after starting on the pole.
Hamlin, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top five. Blaney finished sixth despite contending for the win early on. William Byron also led for a portion of the race but ended up eighth.
LaJoie, making his Hendrick Motorsports debut, finished 21st after battling handling issues throughout the day. Elliott was suspended for one race after wrecking Hamlin at Charlotte.
Chase Briscoe was docked 120 points and had his crew chief suspended for six races after the team was caught with a counterfeit part at Charlotte. He followed up that colossal penalty with a 34th-place run after suffering a broken radiator.
The NASCAR Cup Series is back in action at the Sonoma Raceway on Sunday, June 11. Daniel Suárez is the defending race winner.
