NASCAR went “short trackin’ Saturday night” at Bristol and this time it wasn’t Kyle that come out on top it was the OTHER Busch. Watch a recap video of Kurt Busch‘s win in the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race above.
The night race at Bristol Motor Speedway did not lack in drama for the fans. Kyle Busch entered the race as the favorite to win considering his resume of domination at the track. That includes winning the last two races in the NASCAR Cup Series held at the track to bring his career NASCAR Cup Series wins at the track to seven. However, on lap two of the race Kyle got loose, spun and caused a multi-car crash that put him two laps down after dealing with the damage to his car.
Kyle’s crew would work on his car to get it better through the race while he drove it back up through the field to get back on the lead lap. He even got close to the front with a possibility of contending for the win until another on track incident took those hopes away completely.
The race had plenty of other drama as some cars were strong early and others came in later in the race. Nine different cars led the race with Ryan Blaney leading that statistic with 121 or the 500 laps as the leader of the race. Ryan was also able to claim the win in stage one while Joey Logano was the winner of stage two.
Kurt Busch kept getting his car better early and through the middle of the race. He got it running well enough to get out front near the end of the race. Kurt had two great re-starts following caution periods at the end of the race to stay out front and claim his sixth Bristol win in NASCAR’s top division. The win is his first of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season locking him on the Chase Grid for the playoffs.
Kyle Larson was able to claim a second place finish at Bristol with Chase Elliott in third, Joey Logano finishing fourth and Erik Jones in fifth place. See the complete race results for the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race here.
The top five in the point standings remain unchanged for another week. Kyle Busch is at #1 with Kevin Harvick #2, Martin Truex Jr. #3, Kurt Busch #4 and Clint Bowyer #5. See the complete Monster Energy NASCAR Point Standings here.
The cup series will take a week off this weekend with just two races two races remaining before the playoffs begin. The next shot drivers will get to either add playoff points to their tally or get their name on the Chase Grid will be in the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway Sunday evening, September 2nd.
By: Buck Stevens
