Well hello Nascar fans. What an incredible weekend of racing at Bristol. It was certainly an interesting race yesterday and I wish I could say a driver I like won that race,but that is just not possible this weekend. However the celebrity-legends race went really well and my good friend Riki Ratchman finished 3rd unofficially so it may be 2nd, the results as I said are unofficial. Well today’s race ended as so many did last season as well, with that familiar M&M’s Toyota in Victory Lane once again. That’s right, Kyle Busch uncharacteristically won another race-cough cough. Of course he did, that kid is on a roll. A few weeks ago he won in Vegas, then his brother Kurt won in Atlanta, and now Kyle is again in the winner’s circle here at Bristol. Let’s look at how he got there.
Starting off the afternoon was easy for Mark Martin he brought the cars to green for the race start while Dale Jr. dropped to last due to a transmission change. Ryan Newman took the lead from Mark on lap 3 and continued to lead until the first caution on lap 27 for John Andretti spinning out of turn 2. Johnson takes the lead when the lap leaders head to pit road for adjustments and fuel. When the race restarts Johnson continues to lead and but only a few short laps later another caution comes out for Dave Blaney spinning out after making contact with John Andretti. Johnson continues to lead the cars around until caution 3 on lap sixty when Todd Bodine crashes into the wall and causes a chain reaction that involves several others including Michael Waltrip and Kevin Harvick. Kurt Busch also suffers some slight nose damage during the exchange.
A few laps later and its back to green with Johnson continuing to lead the field but it is short lived as Kyle Busch takes the lead two laps later on lap 70 and continues to lead through the caution on lap 123 when McMurray spins in turn 1 after coming down on Juan Pablo Montoya who retaliates sending Jamie around in turn 1. After some pit stop related lead changes, Kyle Busch once again takes the lead. He leads the pack again until caution 5 comes out on lap 189 for Jamie again as he spins coming out of turn 4. After more pit related lead changes it gets back to Kyle Busch once again and he brings the cars to green for the restart once again on lap 196. This continues until lap 318 when Denny Hamlin finally catches up to Kyle Busch and passes him for the lead. It is short lived though as Brian Vickers cuts a tire one lap later on lap 319 and brings out the sixth caution of the day. Johnson retakes the lead when he wins the race off pit road and leads the field to green on lap 329.
But it too is a short lived lead for Johnson as Kyle retakes the lead again on lap 369. Then on lap 440, Harvick is wham!, into the wall and in trouble, his car is badly damaged from earlier in the race as well as this wreck. Busch leads the field to green again on lap 449 and once again Kyle’s run is cut short by another caution. There were 9 cautions in all during the race. This one for David Stremme and Jr. having contact was the eighth caution of the day. They were back under way on lap 460 with Kyle still leading the way and running his butt off when here comes caution number nine, with only a few laps to go and on lap 494 Joey Logano blows an engine and his night is over a few laps early. After the track was cleaned up they set the field for a green, white, checkered finish and Kyle Busch once again cruised to victory lane. This is starting to be somewhat reminiscent of last season when Kyle won all those races. Here is how the top ten looked like for the Bristol race.
Kyle Busch 18 Toyota Snickers/M&M’s
Denny Hamlin 11 Toyota FedEx
Jimmy Johnson 48 Chevrolet Lowe’s
Jeff Gordon 24 Chevrolet Dupont
Kasey Kahne 9 Dodge Budweiser
Mark Martin 5 Chevrolet Kellogg’s/Carquest
Ryan Newman 39 Chevrolet US Army
Jeff Burton 31 Chevrolet Caterpillar
Juan P Montoya 42 Chevrolet Target
Marcos Ambrose 47 Toyota Little Debbie
Well that’s the rundown on today’s big race. Hope you enjoyed the race, I know I really did. Have a good weekend and I’ll see you midweek with a Martinsville report. Until then Nascar fans.
Nascar Dude says
cant believe that kyle won again it is starting to look like he is doing something to his car to make it go faster then everyone
Lorri says
your not kidding. i mean i know he is good and all, but come on. every weekend or every other, like you said, its beginning to look a lot like cheating if you ask me. thats the only good thing with the chase formula, no matter how many he wins, he still has to fight the other 11 drivers during the chase races,and he starts at the same point as everyone else. Apparantly his momentum does not serve him as well during those races. cant say im complaining about that anyway. but i do agree with you, its really beginning to smell like rubber around here.