The Duck Commander 500 started late and ended late as Kyle Busch created his own style of two-steppin’ in Texas to claim two wins in the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

Rain in Texas delayed the start of the NASCAR Saturday night (4/9) race by nearly two hours. The race that should have started in the daytime and ended under the lights of Texas Motor Speedway would now be run completely under the lights. Drivers and pit crews had to shift from figuring out how the track would change from the day to the night, to figuring out how the track would change from being a green track washed free of rubber by the rain to a track with rubber being laid down through the race.

Early in the race it was Martin Truex Jr. and Carl Edwards that looked as though they were the cars to beat. In fact, Carl led the field for 124 laps and Martin ended the race with the most laps led at 141 of the 334 laps.

However, it was the sixth caution of seven yellow flags issued during the race that would set the stage for Kyle Busch to challenge for the win. During that caution period everybody came to pit row for a set of new tires … everybody except race leader Martin Truex Jr. that is. When the race re-started Martin was able to get out to hold the lead of the race.

However, three laps later the final caution would be issued as Texas had its own “Big One” with a crash caused at least some damage to 13 different cars. On the impending re-start of the race the older tires were not enough for Martin to hold the lead a second time and Kyle was able to take the lead and keep it for the final 33 laps of the race.

Kyle claimed his second Texas win in the Sprint Cup series with the Duck Commander 500 victory, his second win in a row for the 2016 Sprint Cup series season, his second win at Texas for the weekend (he won the Xfinity Series race the night before), and his second weekend sweep as he won both the truck series and Sprint Cup series race the previous weekend at Martinsville.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. battle back from a lap down early in the race to claim a second place finish at Texas. Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson and rookie Chase Elliot claimed third, fourth and fifth places respectively. See the complete race results for the Duck Commander 500 here.

The Texas win moves defending Sprint Cup Champion Kyle Busch up two spots to the top of the point standings while Jimmie Johnson holds his spot at number two. Kevin Harvick falls two place to third with Carl Edwards holding steady in fourth and Joey Logano staying steady in the fifth spot. See the complete NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings after the race at Texas Motor Speedway here.

Since Kyle already had a win this season he just solidifies his spot on The Chase grid with a second win. He and Jimmie Johnson are now the drivers with two wins on the grid with three other drives with a single win for the season. See The Chase Grid as it stands following the Duck Commander 500 here.

NASCAR will go short trackin’ for the second time three weeks as the Sprint Cup series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway this week for the Food City 500 Sunday, April 17th.

By: Buck Stevens