Heading into Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch was the hottest driver in NASCAR, winning both the Camping World Truck and XFINITY series races earlier in the weekend. This race was no different.
It didn’t take Busch long to race to the front, capturing the lead from Kyle Larson in the waning laps of the opening stage after starting 18th. The No. 18 team led the final lap, after battling side-by-side with with the No. 42 car for the final 10 laps. Busch went on to record his 10th stage victory of the season.
Stage 2 was much of the same, Erik Jones dominating, with Busch capitalizing late in the 125 lap stage. But a caution flew with 18 laps to go in the stage when Austin Dillon cut his left rear tire, tagging along Jeffrey Earnhardt. Busch’s crew chief, Adam Stevens called the No. 18 car to pit road, giving up the playoff point, hoping to put him in the right position for the second half of the event. Matt Kenseth was the victor of the second stage.
The final stage started off with 97 consecutive laps of green flag racing with Jones’ No. 77 car leading the way. The race was his to lose and with less than 60 laps to go, Busch got around Jones and Kenseth in lapped traffic, going on to lead the remaining laps.
Busch’s triumph was his third of the weekend, the second time the 32-year-old has done so in his career. The last time he did it was in 2010.
“That one was a lot harder,” Busch said of his victory. “Man, Erik Jones put up a whale of a fight. That all I had. I was running with my tongue hanging… Car might not have been perfect, but I’m never perfect. I never feel like we’re perfect.
“Adam Stevens and these guys they never quit working on it. Every single pit stop we kept working on it, kept adjusting on it, so I can’t say enough about his Toyota Camry.”
Busch led 156 of 300 laps, gaining six playoff points. With two races remaining before the playoffs begin, the No. 18 team has 20 playoff points, the second most in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
Starting from the pole, Jones had a career race. The No. 77 car paced the field for 260 laps, 106 more than his previous career-high in any NASCAR race. It’s the second-consecutive race that the Rookie of the Year contender has finished among the top three positions.
“It is what it is,” Jones said. “We raced hard all night, led a lot of laps. We did almost everything we needed to do and we qualified on the pole and finished second. I wish we would have had a little bit more. It’s a bummer. It’s a great weekend for us.”
Coming into the race, Jones had led just 50 laps this season. The victory would have locked him into the playoffs, but now the No. 77 team must win at either Darlington Raceway or Richmond Raceway to have a chance at the championship.
Denny Hamlin rebounded late in the race to round out the podium. Kenseth fell to fourth after battling for the lead late in the race. Kurt Busch raced up to fifth, while pitting during the final caution of the race with 84 laps to go.
Both Ryan Newman and Trevor Bayne recorded their second-consecutive top-10 finishes, respectively, finishing sixth and seventh. Last year’s winner Kevin Harvick came home eighth, while Larson and Ryan Blaney filled the top 10.
Swept.
Again pic.twitter.com/yt0euHKPN8
— Toyota Racing (@ToyotaRacing) August 20, 2017
Love him or hate him I feel he is the most all around talented driver I will ever witness in my lifetime. Congratulations @KyleBusch ?
— Kyle Larson (@KyleLarsonRacin) August 20, 2017
He did it!!!!!! Three in a row way to sweep the weekend babe!!!!! pic.twitter.com/mTqOBAQtl8
— Samantha Busch (@SamanthaBusch) August 20, 2017
About the author
Dustin joined the Frontstretch team at the beginning of the 2016 season. 2020 marks his sixth full-time season covering the sport that he grew up loving. His dream was to one day be a NASCAR journalist, thus why he attended Ithaca College (Class of 2018) to earn a journalism degree. Since the ripe age of four, he knew he wanted to be a storyteller.
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HE JUST MAKES ME SICK
Yeah, I don’t get it…never will get it…Now cue the “You are jealous” sack suckers. LOL.
A nasty piece of work he is mentally and as a human being. He ain’t right in the head. IMO, too much insane history documented to think otherwise!
And also cue the loons saying he is the “best ever”. I don’t get that either. Well for instance this is only his second win IN CUP this season…others have more. Seems his mediocrity in CUP of the past few years as far as wins go with the media and the loons, THEY TAKE HIS “WINS” IN CUP AND MELT HIS KIDDIE BS INTO A GREAT BIG BALL OF WONDERFULNESS AND PROCLAIM THAT AS A WONDER OF SUPERIORITY IN CUP!!!!!!The media with this clown is astounding and detrimental to the sport overall, imo! As if he is the only one to do THIS or THAT..and they want you to think it is CUP related. A strange dynamic of insanity is at work promoting him. So weird. My opine sadly. :(
I can’t sit through a race anymore as it is, since they seem to want to cater to the lowest common denominator all while bombarding us with ad after ad promo after promo for 3-4 straight hours. Insulting the intelligence of the fan base by telling us to respect Kyle for his success in the minor leagues makes me change the channel that much quicker. And I did often this weekend. Sad state of affairs, considering this was Bristol.
I don’t think he’ll ever be likeable. He’s everything you don’t want a person to be.
WOW! Who knew the point of sports competition was to be “likeable?”
Right on DONINAJAX!!!!
You people should be warned that any criticism of the almighty, great egotistical driver of the #18 Toyota will unleash the wrath of that vicious, psychotic lawyer lady from Wisconsin, aka SmarterThanYou, and her equally vicious co-hort, Echo (one in the same?). She is so enamoured with this guy that it clouds her thinking! What’s funny is that she comes on here and viciously attacks anyone who dares not bow to the #18’s greatness (Barf!), then turns around and launches her own vicious hatred toward any driver who drives a Ford, especially a Penske and Penske related Ford.
I sincerely hope she’s more professional in court, but, I doubt it! Then again, maybe one-too-many Judges have admonished her for her less-than-professional behaviour.
That’s pretty funny, Ken, since I have always driven Ford products and the whole reason I got into NASCAR was to cheer Ford drivers. Over time, however, I grew up and realized it didn’t matter what make of car a guy was driving; it was the driving itself that mattered.
And I am not enamored of Kyle Busch or any other sports figure, since I know how flawed they all are, just like the rest of the imperfect humans in this imperfect world. Dale Earnhardt Sr. was a dirty driver, an arrogant bully, and caused his own demise. For that I should admire him? That would be silly, but to a redneck, I guess it makes some kind of weird sense. (All that inbreeding over generations affects the capability for logical thought, apparently.)
The closest I have to a hero in sports is Al McGuire. You don’t know who that is, (your loss), but every time he stepped onto the basketball court, the fans would yell “Give ’em hell, Al!” Sure, he had his detractors too, although “hater” is a term more closely associated with NASCAR fans than fans of legitimate sports. Things is, giving the competition hell is what sports is supposed to be about. Contrast that with Dale Jr. sniffing that Kevin Harvick’s comments about him were “hurtful.” What I don’t get is how that little wimp has any fans at all.
So, to the winner go the spoils and a few weeks of bragging rights. But just remember two things: Nice guys DO finish last. And there really aren’t any nice guys once you scratch the surface façade and see the phoniness underneath.
I see DumberThanYou is back FLAPPING THOSE GUMS AGAIN. You make me sick reading your GARBAGE every week.
You probably just jumped on the Kyle Busch Bandwagon because he wins all those MINOR LEAGUE races. He is an arrogant PIECE OF S**T……..
I jumped on the Kyle Busch bandwagon in (I think) 2005. The day after the Daytona 500, one of the attorneys in my office said, “I loved that kid in the #5 car.” I said, “The one who caused the wreck at the end?” He said, “Yeah, he’s got the balls to be a real racer.” It took awhile, but I started paying attention. I don’t give a rat’s behind about his personality, but I loved seeing a young driver with skill and panache, even if he was a bit rough around the edges. Nobody in today’s NASCAR world is nearly as much fun to watch. And I never watched the Minor League races, so that was never a factor.
You and the rest of the haters are the real POS. I feel bad for you that you can’t enjoy racing just because of one driver. That is sad, but it is YOUR problem, not mine.
You can’t be much of a person to say Dale Earnhardt got what he deserved by dying in 2001 so guess what your opinions mean absolutely nothing to me and probably everyone else.
Yeah, that’s why you can’t help but reply.
That’s why your known as DumberThanYou .
DUMBER THAN YOU THE ONE WHO OBSESSED WITH PECKER SIZES (I AM A FEMALE BY THE WAY STUPID YOUR REFERENCES TO MY GENITALIA ALWAYS WAY OFF) AND WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK…IF OUR OPINION AND FACT ABOUT KYLE IS OUR PROBLEM, why do you jump in so much with your childish, crude retorts when nobody solicited your stupidity to begin with!!! Guess you a DUMBER than all of us after all, what a hateful hag, one with mental issues it seems too, imo.
Got you to shout you old lady, kb! RFLMAO! That makes my day.
Med check for Dumber…and No way in hell am I that old, no where near it..sounds closer to your age..you know senility and insanity and all…nice try though…back under the bridge troll.
Where the hell did you come from? You seem down right certifiable with zero anything going on whatsoever. Is there another board more in line with your seemingly mental issues that you could get more satisfaction from? This really is the kinda of place you need to be at, or haven’t you figured that out yet? Just trying to guide you, cause you seem to need help.
What your lawyer friend should have said was:
He’s got a lot of talent but until he learns to drive with his brain instead of his right foot he won’t win as often as he should.
He still hasn’t learned.
Another lawyer who isn’t SmartertThanTheOpposition and doesn’t see the big picture because he’s too busy concentrating on the little details.
I agree with your posts, but you should change the name to something without a bulls eye on you back.
Ken don’t what you are talking about with DUMBER, but I always ignored “IT” as I thought is was a sexually frustrated socially outcast male teenager. The rants was/is so juvenile, I cannot think otherwise. Either way, young, old, fat, skinny…etc. DUMBER has proven to be a troll.
Welcome to the Toyota Cup positions 1 through 4 not too bad but they can do better.
Hendrick motor sports did manage to get all of their cars in the top 25 good night for them no top tens though maybe a bit hasty in extending the contract of the 24 and bringing in two inexperienced kids for the 88 and 5. The future is certainly up in the air for this once esteemed team
Welcome to Brian’s NWO (New World Order)! Straqight from the WWE. I prefer Not Worth Ordering.
The fact is, a guy as talented as Kyle Busch merely tarnishes his reputation by taking his major-league abilities to the minor leagues as often as he does. Does all those Xfinity wins impress anyone except his die-hard fans? Of course not. Add in his petulance and you’ve got a an egotistical spoiled brat who who is about as likeable as a cold sore.
Yes indeed…I cannot root for someone who is just such an ass. There is plenty of talent out there that handle themselves with class and good humor. The excuses made for this jerk are amazing.
Reading all your posts and replies over the past year maybe Kyle has taken CLASS lessons from you.