Busch dominates at Bristol for 2nd win of season
BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) — Kyle Busch has dominated Bristol Motor Speedway before, only to be denied a trip to Victory Lane.
Not this time.
Busch led 378 of 502 laps on Sunday to win at Bristol, his second victory of the season. It was redemption for Busch, who lost his power steering while leading last spring and was bumped from the front in August by Carl Edwards after leading 415 laps.
And he was well on his way to victory in the Nationwide Series race on Saturday, leading a race-high 157 laps before his crew let a tire slip away on the final pit stop. The ensuing penalty knocked him out of contention and he finished sixth.
"We should have won here last fall, we should have won here yesterday," Busch said. "This place probably owes me a few. But you can never ask a race track to pay you back. You just have to just keep working on it."
He was untouchable in his Toyota on Sunday, even to teammate Denny Hamlin, who followed him across the finish line.
"Man, it’s great to get a 1-2," Hamlin said of the Joe Gibbs Racing dominance.
Hamlin has had his own heartbreak at Bristol – he led 98 laps last spring and was headed to the win when a fuel pickup problem cost him the victory. He finished third, again behind Busch, in August.
Defending three-time series champion Jimmie Johnson was third in a Chevrolet to tie his career-best Bristol finish, back in 2004. Jeff Gordon, his teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, was fourth.
Kasey Kahne was fifth in a Dodge and followed by Ryan Newman, defending race winner Jeff Burton and Juan Pablo Montoya.
Marcos Ambrose, in the spotlight after his gas man chased a tire across pit road two weeks ago at Atlanta, finished 10th.
A Busch brother has won the past three races. Kyle Busch won at Las Vegas earlier this month, and Kurt followed it with a win at Atlanta. Kurt Busch, a five-time Bristol winner, finished 11th on Sunday.
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