On Air Now & coming up

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series “Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race”

Bristol Motor Speedway was no match for Kyle Busch this past week as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver collected three wins in a four-day stretch including Saturday’s Monster Energy Series race. After winning Wednesday in the Camping World Truck Series, Busch returned to “Thunder Valley” to claim victory in Friday night’s X-finity Series race. Then on Saturday, he got the best of rookie Erik Jones as well as the half-mile Tennessee oval, keeping the #18 Toyota in front over the final 56 laps and beating Jones to the checkered flag by nearly a second-and-a-half.

It’s the second time in eight years that Busch has won all three races across NASCAR’s three national series in the same week at the same track. He first accomplished the feat in 2010, also at Bristol. Jones did his best to deny Busch his “Tennessee Trifecta” on Saturday night, starting from the pole and leading a race-high 260 laps. They exchanged the lead three times during the final stage before Busch asserted himself down the stretch. After laboring through much of the regular season without a Cup Series victory, the 2015 champion now seems to be building momentum for another title run. Busch has two wins in his last four starts and has climbed to second in the point standings.

Denny Hamlin finished 3rd on Saturday and Matt Kenseth was 4th, giving Toyota a sweep of the top four spots. Kurt Busch completed the top five in his Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.

With just two races left in the regular season, Jamie McMurray leads Clint Bowyer by 58 points in the fight for the final playoff spot. Paul Menard finished 16th on Saturday night, just two days before his 37th birthday.

[button style=”btn-primary btn-lg” icon=”fa fa-flag-checkered” align=”left” type=”link” target=”true” title=”mrn.com Race Center” link=”http://www.mrn.com/Race-Series/NASCAR-Sprint-Cup/News/Articles/2017/08/Bristol-Motor-Speedway-Trifecta-for-Kyle-Busch.aspx”]

– story by John Singler
www.mrn.com
Concord, North Carolina

Recommended Posts

Loading...