Kyle Busch scored his second-career Bristol three-race sweep with a victory in Saturday night’s Bristol Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, taking his former protégé and future teammate Erik Jones to school in the final laps for his 40th-career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race win.
Busch got past Jones as well as his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth to jump from third to the lead with 55 laps to go and then sliced his way through lapped traffic to beat out Jones by half a straightaway for his second win of the season.
Denny Hamlin and Kenseth finished third and fourth to give Toyota a sweep of the top four spots. Kurt Busch rounded out the top five.
Busch, who became the first Cup Series driver to win all three races in a single weekend in this same event back in 2010, won Wednesday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race with a come-from-behind victory in the final segment, then followed that up with a dominating run in Friday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race to set up a chance for his second-career hat trick.
“Man, Erik Jones put up a whale of a fight,” said Busch, who notched his 20th Bristol victory. “That’s all I had. I was running with my tongue hanging out. My arms were Jello and my throat hurts, but man that’s awesome.
“This is for Rowdy Nation. Rowdy Nation’s really what fuels us to get ‘em out, to get around and get along and all the noise is good noise, that’s how I feel about it. Some people like it, some people don’t. A lot of people like a lot of other drivers that were popular and some didn’t either, so I don’t care. I am who I am.”
Busch made it known early in the race that he wanted to be the one out front, waging a door-to-door duel with Kyle Larson to win the opening 125-lap segment.
A slow pit stop put Busch back in fifth for the second segment, but he quickly powered through the field to regain the top spot on lap 167, trading the lead with Jones five times over the next 75 laps.
A caution with seven laps to go brought the field to pit road, but Kenseth elected to stay out and led the final laps to win the second stage.
The final 250-lap segment was more of the same as Jones and Busch duked it out with Kenseth lurking close behind, eventually passing Busch for second place with 75 laps to go.
Falling to third seemed to get Busch’s blood boiling, as he quickly reeled in Kenseth and Jones by running the low side, ducking under both drivers with 55 laps to go to take the lead for the final time.
Jones would lose second place to Kenseth but came storming back with 37 laps to go, pushing Kenseth aside to retake the spot. He managed to close within 10 cars lengths of Busch in the final laps, but couldn’t make up any more ground.
Jones’ runner-up finish was his second-straight top-three finish, but a frustrating end for Jones, who saw his shot at his first Cup Series win slip out of his grasp for the second week in a row.
“You don’t want to sound like you’re whining or being a sore loser by saying it sucks to run second, but it’s a bummer. It hurts,” said Jones, who led a race-high 260 laps. “You know, you want to win every race you’re in. This was the first shot that I really had to come really close to it in the Cup Series. Bristol is a really good racetrack for myself. Thought we had a shot at it all night, led a ton of laps.
“That good of a car, it’s Kyle Busch. He won all three races here this weekend. So I feel like I’m close to him here, just trying to find that last little bit.”
The final push for the lead was an odd situation pitting current teammates and future teammate against one another, with Jones set to take over Kenseth’s ride in 2018 and join Busch at JGR.
The irony of the situation was not lost in Kenseth, who is still seeking a ride for next season.
“Takes my ride and runs into me,” Kenseth joked. “Me and Kyle, we both got a pretty good run up on the top, got mixed up, got in front of him, then just wore me down and passed me back. I didn’t see him very long. Just got a lot smaller.
Saturday night’s result gave Kenseth a little more breathing room in his bid for a spot in the playoffs. Kenseth now sits 15th in the playoff standings, just one spot above Jamie McMurray at the cutoff spot with just two races left in the regular season.
“I wasn’t really thinking about the Playoffs,” said Kenseth “There’s only two races left, so somebody is going to make it by points. If you don’t get a win in the next two weeks, hopefully we get in.
“I do feel like we have a little bit of momentum at the right time. We need more, but I feel like we have some at the right time if we can get in.”
Jones’ runner-up spot inched him closer in the playoff race but not close enough – now sitting 19th in the standings behind Clint Bowyer now and Joey Logano, all of whom need a win in the final two races to secure a playoff spot.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Bristol Motor Speedway – Bristol, TN
Bristol Night Race – August 19, 2017
1. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 500.
2. (1) Erik Jones #, Toyota, 500.
3. (7) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 500.
4. (5) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 500.
5. (25) Kurt Busch, Ford, 500.
6. (13) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 500.
7. (20) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 500.
8. (29) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 500.
9. (2) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 500.
10. (10) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 500.
11. (21) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 500.
12. (11) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 500.
13. (8) Joey Logano, Ford, 500.
14. (14) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 500.
15. (12) Daniel Suarez #, Toyota, 500.
16. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 499.
17. (19) David Ragan, Ford, 499.
18. (4) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 499.
19. (9) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 499.
20. (26) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 499.
21. (6) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 499.
22. (23) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 498.
23. (31) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet, 497.
24. (3) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 497.
25. (24) Danica Patrick, Ford, 496.
26. (34) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 496.
27. (15) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 496.
28. (35) * Corey LaJoie #, Toyota, 495.
29. (17) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 493.
30. (30) * J.J. Yeley(i), Chevrolet, 493.
31. (37) * Gray Gaulding #, Chevrolet, 488.
32. (36) * B.J. McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 482.
33. (32) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 480.
34. (40) Joey Gase(i), Toyota, 476.
35. (33) Landon Cassill, Ford, Accident, 412.
36. (22) Ty Dillon #, Chevrolet, Accident, 394.
37. (28) Aric Almirola, Ford, Accident, 390.
38. (39) Reed Sorenson, Toyota, Transmission, 352.
39. (16) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 230.
40. (38) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, Accident, 225.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 95.969 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 46 Mins, 37 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.422 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 8 for 53 laps.
Lead Changes: 21 among 6 drivers.
Lap Leaders: E. Jones # 1-3; C. Elliott 4-5; E. Jones # 6-50; K. Larson 51-63; E. Jones # 64; K. Larson 65-114; Kyle Busch 115-117; K. Larson 118-124; Kyle Busch 125-129; E. Jones # 130-166; Kyle Busch 167-179; E. Jones # 180-197; Kyle Busch 198-202; E. Jones # 203; Kyle Busch 204-240; E. Jones # 241; M. Kenseth 242-252; R. Newman 253; E. Jones # 254-360; Kyle Busch 361-397; E. Jones # 398-444; Kyle Busch 445-500.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): E. Jones # 9 times for 260 laps; Kyle Busch 7 times for 156 laps; K. Larson 3 times for 70 laps; M. Kenseth 1 time for 11 laps; C. Elliott 1 time for 2 laps; R. Newman 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 18,77,42,24,20,11,21,22,78,48
Stage #2 Top Ten: 20,48,4,31,77,42,11,18,27,14
Top 10 in Points: 1. Martin Truex, Jr. – 951 (4 Wins); 2. Kyle Busch – 850 (2 Wins); 3. Kyle Larson – 845 (3 Wins); 4. Kevin Harvick – 824 (1 Win); 5. Denny Hamlin – 753 (1 Win); 6. Brad Keselowski – 728 (2 Wins); 7. Chase Elliott – 711; 8. Matt Kenseth – 703; 9. Jamie McMurray – 700; 10. Clint Bowyer – 642.
