NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Kyle Busch Sweeps At Bristol
Kyle Busch has won five consecutive races at Bristol Motor Speedway...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted March 20, 2011   Bristol, TN
Kyle Busch celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Jeff Byrd 500 Presented By Food City at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Getty Images)
It might be time to rename Bristol Motor Speedway Kyle Busch Motor Speedway.

The 25-year-old Las Vegas native completed a sweep of the NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup races at Bristol this weekend, winning Sunday’s Jeff Byrd 500 at the 0.533-mile oval in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The last time Busch was here in August 2010, he became the only man in history to win Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series races at the same track in the same weekend.

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s five consecutive Bristol victories in three series for Busch. For his still-young career, Busch now has five Bristol Cup victories and a total of 11 in NASCAR’s top three divisions.

What’s Busch’s secret?

“You go down the straightaway and you slam it into the corners and you mash the gas and you kind of sling right back out of the corners,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun to do that. It’s kind of an art. Some guys are really good at it, and some find a knack that makes them really good at it and make it seem easy.”

Busch certainly didn’t have it easy, as he fought off furious late-race challenges from Carl Edwards’ No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford and Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to win his first Cup race of 2011 and 20th of his career. Rounding out the top five were Matt Kenseth in a second Roush Fenway Ford, and the surprising Paul Menard, who all year has been the best of the four Richard Childress Racing Chevrolets.

The second five was Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman

The drama at Bristol started early, with Jeff Burton bouncing off the Turn 4 wall on Lap 28 and causing a six-car pile-up behind him that essentially took Denny Hamlin, David Reutimann and Brad Keselowski out of contention.

NASCAR threw a competition caution on Lap 52 to check tire wear, with Stewart-Haas Racing’s Ryan Newman quickly jumping to the front.

Martin Truex Jr. led 42 of the first 125 laps, but ran high on Lap 154, allowing Kevin Harvick to take the top spot for the first time. Harvick and the No. 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet held the point until Lap 192, when defending race winner Jimmie Johnson became the eighth different leader on the day, his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy looking very strong.

Just past the midway point, Busch began pressuring Johnson for the lead, and after a furious dice, the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing went out front on Lap 270. About 50 laps later, Busch got hung up trying to pass backmarkers, which allowed Johnson to close back up to Busch.

On Lap 341, Johnson went out front again, Busch frustrated trying to pass Marcos Ambrose and put him a lap down.

Then there was a caution on Lap 345, which sent the leaders down pit road. Johnson held the lead during the yellow, but when the track went green, it was Kurt Busch who went on the offensive, taking over second place.

But it was Kyle back to second on Lap 361, dropping his big brother into third place and a hornet's nest of a battle with Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards for third place.

David Gilliland brought out a yellow on Lap 428 with a tankslapper on the wall, which set up what was expected to be the final pit stop of the day. Johnson had a terrible stop, coming out fourth behind Kyle Busch, Edwards and Greg Biffle.
Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer spin out after an incident in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Jeff Byrd 500 Presented By Food City at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)

On the restart, Kasey Kahne got loose and caused Harvick to check up, which led to Harvick getting turned by Mark Martin and a whole gaggle of cars behind them wrecking. Juan Pablo Montoya, Trevor Bayne and Clint Bowyer also received heavy damage in the incident.

Then it was Travis Kvapil’s turn for calamity, spinning on the frontstretch to bring out the day’s ninth caution on Lap 450. When the track went green, Bowyer lost an engine and the yellow flew again.

On the restart, the battle up front was tremendous, with Busch trying to hold of Edwards and Johnson. Edwards took the lead for a single lap on Lap 474, but Busch regained the lead the next lap and never looked back as he easily captured the victory.















Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100
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