Busch, Truex Connected By Drama

By ESPN

The teams of Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. were connected by drama for the past week, the result of their battles on the race track.

Expect that to continue, though they hope they can leave trips to the infield medical center and talk of suspensions out of the mix.

First a recap: They battled for the lead at Indianapolis and crashed as Truex lost control. The confrontation between a couple of Truex crew members and Busch crew chief Adam Stevens resulted in a couple three-race suspensions for the crew members. Then they started next to each other Sunday at Pocono Raceway and appeared to be two of the best cars in the field for much of the race, won by Busch.

Truex, who has three wins this year, still leads the Cup point standings by 85 points. After Pocono, Busch finally has a win but sits fourth in the standings and a pretty much insurmountable 100 points behind Truex with five races left in the regular season.

After Indianapolis, Truex texted Busch and they both talked publicly at Pocono about moving on.

"Things happen, you move on and you have to focus forward on what's next. ... I don't think there was any negative things," Busch said. "I think it was just something that happened on the track and we move on."

It might have been a little more difficult for Truex to move on after having his two tire changers suspended by Joe Gibbs Racing, which supplies Furniture Row Racing with its pit crew.

The crew with the two replacements had a nearly flawless race Sunday with the exception of a hung lug nut on the first pit stop.

"I'm proud of our two tire changers that came in and filled in," Truex said. "I'm thankful that we had a solid day and looking forward to getting our guys back in a few weeks. But everybody did a good job."

Having a solid day should give everyone confidence for Watkins Glen and Michigan that the replacement crewmen can perform well under pressure.

"They settled in and for coming together as a group, you couldn't ask them to do any better," Truex crew chief Cole Pearn said. "Late in the week, they started practicing together. You couldn't ask for them to do anything better.

"It probably gives them confidence. To come into a deal like that where you're in contention to win a race and coming off the bench cold like that, they handled it really well."

On the track, Busch teammate Denny Hamlin said it appears Truex and Busch are the top two cars in the sport at the moment. Earlier in the year, that status would have gone to Truex and Kyle Larson.

"Our stats and our runs and our speed shows for itself," Busch said. "Those guys have just been able to capitalize on race victories. That's what we haven't been able to capitalize on."

It would be no surprise if Truex and Busch continue to battle for wins over the next few seasons. Whether pit crews remember their alliance might be harder to predict.
Xfinity Series: Preece does it

Ryan Preece decided to bring his sponsorship to Joe Gibbs Racing, and that meant just two races of opportunity to win.

The 26-year-old Preece finished second at New Hampshire and then capitalized with the victory Saturday at Iowa.

"What I'm going to take away from this is I did it," Preece said. "I proved it to myself and this is awesome."

Preece ran the full schedule in 2016 for JD Motorsports, and that gave him the experience to know how to navigate Xfinity races.

"[He had] so many opportunities there to make a mistake there at the end with so much pressure on the line and he didn't do it," crew chief Chris Gabehart said.

Having made his name on NASCAR's modified circuit and still competing in the series, Preece doesn't have any additional Xfinity races planned for 2017.
Camping World Truck Series: Haley making progress

Justin Haley attracted some unwanted attention at Pocono thanks to tangling with Kyle Busch as Busch tried to pass him at the start of the final stage.

Busch said he didn't know what he did to make Haley mad, but it seemed as if Haley tried to wreck him.

"It was nothing intentional," Haley said. "It was chaotic down there. ... Going into the tunnel turn [Turn 2] two-wide is sketchy, let alone three-wide. So I just hate it for him and my team -- it cost us a top-5."

Haley finished 10th while Busch was relegated to 25th.

After missing the first two races of the season because he had not turned 18, Haley is 12th in the standings. He would make the playoffs with a win in one of the final four races of the regular season. Haley has seven consecutive top-10 finishes.

"We struggled at first. ... We're on a roll here," Haley said. "We've just got to find a little more speed to run with the [Kyle Busch Motorsports] guys."