SUAREZ SAVORS FIRST XFINITY WIN AT MICHIGAN

RELATED: Race results

Daniel Suarez surged to his first NASCAR XFINITY Series victory Saturday at Michigan International Speedway, taking the lead from Kyle Busch with two laps left.

Suarez, the series' points leader, recovered from an early race speeding penalty and rallied in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota. He led four laps and became the first Mexican-born driver to win in any of NASCAR's three national series. He also became the XFINITY tour's sixth foreign-born winner in his 48th career start.

Busch, a Sprint Cup Series regular, led a race-high 88 of 125 laps in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota but settled for second in the Menard's 250 presented by Valvoline. Paul Menard finished third, Erik Jones fourth and Elliott Sadler fifth.

Suarez was first off pit road during the first caution period, but a speeding penalty knocked him back to 25th place for the Lap 32 restart that followed. He gradually gained ground during the course of the 250-miler, making his most dramatic charge over the long green-flag run to the finish.

Suarez caught and inched ahead of Busch as the two drivers flashed under the white flag for the final lap. The 24-year-old Suarez -- a NASCAR Next product and last season's Sunoco Rookie of the Year -- held on for a .281-second margin of victory at the finish.

Jones started second and led 18 laps on an emotional day for the 20-year-old driver. Jones, a Byron, Michigan native, announced through Twitter during Saturday's pre-race that his father had died Tuesday at age 53 after a bout with cancer.

Before the race, he paid tribute to his father, affixing a decal with the name "Dave" in place of his own above the driver's door of his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota.

Alex Bowman led 11 laps and secured seventh place in just his third XFINITY start of the season in the JR Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet. He landed his first pole position since 2013 in Saturday's Coors Light Pole Qualifying.

The series' next race -- the American Ethanol E15 250 -- is scheduled June 19 (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) at Iowa Speedway.

This story will be updated.

Camping World Truck race results from Texas

Rookie William Byron passed Matt Craftonwith five laps to go and then held off Rico Abreu‘s late challenge before Abreu hit the wall to win Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck race at Texas Motor Speedway.

It’s the second victory of the season for Byron, who drives for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Crafton finished second with Johnny Sauterthird. Abreu hit the wall in each of the final two laps and fell to ninth.

Matt Crafton remains Truck points leader after Texas race

Rookie William Byron moved up two spots to third in the NASCAR Camping World Truck point standings after his win Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway, but Matt Craftonremains the series leader.

Crafton holds an 18-point advantage onTimothy Peters after the season’s seventh race of the year. Byron is next, 23 points behind Crafton.

William Byron chases down Matt Crafton for second Truck of rookie season

FORT WORTH — William Byron chased down two-time champion Matt Crafton and then fended off fellow charging rookie Rico Abreu to win the Rattlesnake 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Bryon was able to cruise the final two laps after Abreu got into the outside wall twice after reaching Byron’s bumper.

Byron has now won twice in the last four Camping World Truck Series races after his victory at Kansas Speedway last month.

The rookie’s win ended a two-race win streak for Crafton, who had also won the last two June races at TMS.

Byron was followed by Crafton, Johnny Sauter, Ben Kennedy and Tyler Reddick. Abreu finished ninth.

MORE: Race results

HOW WILLIAM BYRON WON: After Matt Crafton’s tires wore down, Byron passed him with five laps to go and fended off a charging Rico Abreu to take his second Truck win.

 WHO HAD A GOOD NIGHT: Matt Crafton blew a tire and hit the Turn 3 wall while leading on Lap 11. Crafton then charged back from 25th in 20 laps to lead a race-high 133 laps before finishing second … Johnny Sauter started from his first pole in three years and led nine laps before finishing third, his fourth top-five finish of the season … Ben Kennedy finish fourth after starting 15th for his first top-five result of the season …Tyler Reddick brought out the second caution on Lap 52 after he lost a rear tire and spun exiting Turn 4. Reddick battled back to finish fifth … German Quiroga started second in his first Truck race since 2014 and finished eighth for his 18th top 10 of his career.

WHO HAD A BAD NIGHT: Rookie Christopher Bell pulled up lame on the first lap after a bad shift caused engine problems. Bell went to the garage where he finished last. …Spencer Gallagher lost a tire just passed Lap 30 and had to pit. He finished 27th, 14 laps down … Mike Bliss brought out a caution with 72 laps to go when he smacked the wall out of Turn 4. Bliss finished 28th … John Wes Townley spun in Turn 3 with 48 laps to go, shredding his right-side tires. Townley finished 17th, a lap down.

NOTABLE: William Byron is now the second-youngest driver to win at Texas Motor Speedway behind Chase Elliott … Matt Crafton holds an 18-point lead over Timothy Peters in the season standings

NEXT: Speediatrics 200 at Iowa Speedway on June 18 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.

Rico Abreu kisses the wall, then chance at first win goodbye

FORT WORTH — Rico Abreu hopped down from his No. 98 Toyota and was immediately met by two crew members.

As William Byron conducted his second victory burnout of the year on the Texas Motor Speedway front stretch, they helped the 4-foot-4 Abreu remove his helmet and safety equipment and told him there was no reason to be mad.

Minutes before, Abreu had gone from running second with three laps to go in the Rattlesnake 400 to finishing ninth, his best result in nine Camping World Truck Series starts.

As Byron drove his No. 9 truck past where Abreu stood on pit road, on the way to victory lane, one crew member told the Abreu he had just experienced some of the most fun he’d ever had.

When Byron passed Matt Crafton with five laps to go, Abreu soon followed. The native of St. Helena, California, spent the next two laps driving like he had for most of the race and his whole career – staying as close to the Texas Motor Speedway wall as possible.

“When it gets hot and slick like that, your tires get wore out; I just felt so comfortable up there,” Abreu said of the area of the track and style of racing he mastered while rising through the ranks on dirt tracks.

The driver Abreu was chasing down had the same strategy. However, Byron, who won his first race at Kansas Speedway last month, “wasn’t paying attention much” to Abreu as he bore down on him.

“I was still running the top, because that’s what I was running (all night),” Byron said. “Then they said ‘two back’ and I was like ‘Man, we’ve got to figure something out here, so I got to make sure I hit both corners right.'”

Byron did that, taking away Abreu’s racing line, which Byron called the “name of the game” Friday night.

“A couple of guys took my line away and got me into the wall a bit, but you just can’t give up on it,” Byron said. “That outside gives you such huge momentum down the frontstretch.”

Abreu took the momentum he had and reached Byron’s bumper as they came down to two laps to go. But as they entered Turn 1, Abreu’s favorite place on the track became very uncomfortable.

“I figured I maybe could have cleared him off of (Turn) 4, maybe coming to the white,” Abreu said. “But I just got too tight behind him and got into the wall. Can’t have that stuff happening.”

Abreu kept his speed up enough that teammate Matt Crafton, who was running in third, believed Abreu would have “definitely” finished second.

But those chances ended after the white flag when Abreu once again impacted the wall in Turn 2. This time, he didn’t leave the wall until he was on the backstretch.

“That shows how much heart he had that he wanted to win the race,” said Crafton, who led a race-high 133 laps. “He likes that high, wide and handsome stuff and it bit him right there.”

The loss didn’t shake the confidence of Abreu, who started the night in 13th. But he felt bad for the crew members that met him after the best night of his short Truck career.

“They built a great truck this weekend and I just smashed it all,” Abreu said. “I got speed, I just got to put a whole damn night together. I haven’t figured that part out yet.”

Saturday NASCAR schedule at Michigan International Speedway

Today’s track action at Michigan International Speedway includes two Sprint Cup practice sessions, Xfinity Series qualifying and the Menards 250 Xfinity race.

Here’s the schedule:

All times Eastern:

7 a.m. – Xfinity garage open

7 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. – Sprint Cup garage open

9 – 9:55 a.m. – Sprint Cup practice (FS1, MRN)

10 a.m. – Xfinity qualifying; two rounds/single car (FS1)

11:45 a.m. – Xfinity driver-crew chief meeting

12 – 12:55 p.m. – Final Sprint Cup practice (FS1, MRN)

1 p.m. – Xfinity driver introductions

1:30 p.m. – Menards 250 presented by Valvoline; 125 laps, 250 miles (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Today’s Xfinity race at Michigan: Start time, weather, radio/TV info and lineup

The Xfinity Series makes its return to Michigan International Speedway for today’s Menard’s 250 presented by Valvoline. Here are the details:

(All times are Eastern)

START: John Menard, owner and founder of Menard’s, will give the command for drivers to start engines at 1:37 p.m. Green flag is set to wave at 1:46 p.m.

DISTANCE: The race is 125 laps (250 miles) around the 2-mile oval.

PRERACE SCHEDULE: The Xfinity Garage opens at 7 a.m. The driver/crew chief meeting is at 11:45 a.m. Driver introductions are at 1:05 p.m.

NATIONAL ANTHEM: Trent Broussard of the West Michigan Opera Project and Holland Chorale in Michigan will perform the anthem at 1:31 p.m.

TV/RADIO: FS1 will broadcast the race with its coverage beginning at 1 p.m. Motor Racing Network’s broadcast on radio and at MRN.com begins at 1 p.m. SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will carry the MRN broadcast.

FORECAST: wunderground.com predicts a high temperature of 86 degrees with 15 percent chance of rain at the start.

LAST TIME: Kyle Busch won in his first Xfinity race since being injured at Daytona last year. Chase Elliott was second with Kyle Larson third, Chris Buescher fourth and Elliott Sadler fifth.

STARTING LINEUP: Qualifying is at 10 a.m.