Kyle Busch is 2019 NASCAR Champion
Photo: Honda
Kyle Busch capped off an incredible championship run with victory at the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
It was his fifth race win of the season at the wheel of his trusty No. 18 Toyota Camry, which thought 2019 delivered him 17 top-five results and 27 top-10 finishes over 36 races — enough to hand him the driver’s championship title.
The win also marked Busch’s third NASCAR championship win (including his Xfinity title in 2009), all three of which have been won with Toyota. In his 12 seasons with Joe Gibbs Racing, Busch won 52 of his 56 career victories at the wheel of a Camry.
Toyota even set a new record for single-season wins in 2019, having visited victory lane a whopping 19 times.
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Though we couldn’t claim Busch’s victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway was unearned, he was certainly helped by Joe Gibbs Racing botching his teammate Martin Truex Jr’s pit stop. Truex, who had also been in the championship fight, found himself driving out of the pits with his right and left front tires switched around, and had to immediately return to his box on the next lap to get the issue fixed.
Though a caution allowed him to make up some of the time lost, Busch was left relatively unopposed as a result of the mistake. Truex ultimately had to settle for second in the race and in the championship. Third place went to Kevin Harvick, while Denny Hamlin, yet another Toyota driver, finished fourth in the overall rankings.
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