Kyle Busch Completes Bristol Trifecta
BRISTOL, Tenn. – Kyle Busch completed a dominant weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night by winning the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race.
The victory, his 40th in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, allowed Busch to complete the three-race sweep of the NASCAR national events at the historic half-mile oval for the second time in his career. He became the first driver to complete the sweep in 2010.
Unlike his victories in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series races earlier in the weekend, Busch didn’t have the dominant car on Saturday night. That honor belonged to rookie Erik Jones, who started from the pole and led more than half of the race.
Jones was the leader at the start of the third stage on lap 360, but he didn’t hold that position long. Busch, who had restarted fourth, rocketed up to second on the restart and took the lead on lap 361.
Busch continued to hold the lead until the caution flag waved on lap 396 when Chase Elliott spun and made contact with the inside wall after contact with Kevin Harvick coming out of turn two.
All of the leaders came down pit road during the caution, with Jones getting off pit road first ahead of stage two winner Matt Kenseth and Busch. Jones held the lead during the ensuing restart, with Kenseth battling Kevin Harvick for second with Busch running fourth.
The caution flag waved again on lap 416 when Landon Cassill pounded the outside wall in turn one after spinning on the frontstretch. The leaders opted not to come down pit road during the caution, with Jones remaining the leader over Kenseth, Harvick and Busch.
Kyle Busch (18) battles Denny Hamlin during Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Drew Hierwarter Photo)
The race resumed with 79 laps left and Jones maintained the lead, but behind him Busch charged from fourth to drive past Kenseth into second. Kenseth, looking for his fifth Bristol victory, didn’t give up and was able to get back by Busch for second with 73 laps left.
With roughly 60 laps left Kenseth and Busch were locked in a heated battle for second when both drivers began running the high side of the track instead of the bottom. Once they did that they both began to run down Jones and a battle for the lead ensued.
Soon all three drivers were within inches of each other, fighting tooth and nail for the lead. Jones opted to run the top with Kenseth right behind him while Busch took the bottom lane in an attempt to pass both Kenseth and Jones.
On lap 56 Busch’s decision to run the bottom paid off when Jones bobbled on the top, allowing Busch just enough room to clear him to take the race lead. Kenseth also managed to sneak by Jones to take second, but by then Busch had pulled out to a more than a second lead.
For the next 20 laps Kenseth and Jones battled over second as Busch held the lead. On lap 36 Jones finally dispatched Kenseth to take over second before setting his sights on Busch. As the laps clicked off Jones slowly began making up ground, picking up a tenth of a second here or there as Busch encountered lap traffic.
With 10 laps left Jones had gotten to within half a second of Busch, but every time Busch cleared lap traffic he was able to pull back away from the 21-year-old rookie.
In the end Busch held on to score his sixth Bristol NASCAR Cup Series victory and his second victory of the season, beating Jones to the finish by 1.422 seconds. It was Busch’s first Cup Series victory at Bristol in six years.
The triumph also moved Busch into second in the playoff standings behind points leader Martin Truex Jr.
“That one was a lot harder. Man, Erik Jones put up a whale of a fight. That was all I had. I was running with my tongue hanging out. My arms are jello. My throat hurts. But man, that’s awesome,” Busch said. “I can’t say enough about everybody on my Joe Gibbs Racing team. Adams Stevens and the guys are phenomenal. The car might not have been perfect, but I’m never perfect and I never feel like I’m perfect, but this Caramel Camry was fast.”
Jones settled for second aboard the No. 77 5-hour Energy Toyota fielded by Furniture Row Racing, a career-best after starting from the pole. Despite that, Jones was expectedly disappointed after leading a race-high 260 laps.
“It is what it is at this point. We raced hard all night, we led a lot of laps. We did almost everything we needed to do,” Jones said. “We qualified on the pole and ran second. I wish we would have had a little bit more. It’s a bummer, you know? It’s a great weekend for us, you can’t take that away.”
Denny Hamlin got by Kenseth late in the race to finish third, with Kenseth settling for fourth. Kurt Busch was the highest finishing Ford driver, coming home fifth.
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Source :speedsport.com
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