Kurt Busch mastered two late restarts on Saturday during the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race before pulling away to claim his first victory of the season at Bristol Motor Speedway, clinching a spot in the playoffs that open next month in Las Vegas. Busch got the jump on teammate Clint Bowyer as the green flag flew following the next-to-last caution of the night and put his #41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford in front for good.
Busch led the final 24 laps around Bristol’s high-banked 1/2-mile to post his 30th series victory and snap a 58-race winless streak dating back to last year’s season-opening Daytona 500. The margin of victory over runner-up Kyle Larson was 0.36 of a second with Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Erik Jones completing the top five.
NASCAR’s “Big Three” were nowhere to be found at the front of the field as the checkered flag waved. Kevin Harvick finished 2nd in the opening stage but led just 8 laps all night and placed 10th overall. Kyle Busch was part of a 15 car wreck on the 4th lap of the race. He motored on through the night but made contact with Martin Truex, Jr. less than 70 laps from the finish, sending the reigning Cup Series champion sliding across the track and into the path of JJ Yeley. That ended the night for Truex, who finished 30th. Busch wasn’t done. The final yellow flag of the race was displayed after he and Chris Buescher tangled less than 20 laps from the finish, leaving the regular-season points leader with a 20th-place finish.
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– story by John Singler
www.mrn.com
Concord, North Carolina
1. Kyle Busch @ 1003 points
2. Kevin Harvick (-43)
3. Martin Truex, Jr. (-154)
4. Kurt Busch (-207)
5. Clint Bowyer (-227)
6. Joey Logano (-235)
7. Ryan Blaney (-270)
8. Brad Keselowski (-273)
9. Kyle Larson (-274)
10. Denny Hamlin (-296)
For the complete driver standings, please visit the official page on nascar.com.
