Kyle Busch passes Kyle Larson for win at Bristol
Kyle Busch nudged Kyle Larson out of the way with six laps to go at Bristol on Monday and win his second-straight race of the 2018 Cup Series season.
And crazily enough, Busch’s win was made largely in part by his rival Brad Keselowski.
Busch was having an apparent tire issue with less than 40 laps to go while running in third. Keselowski was having problems of his own and had dropped off the lead lap. Keselowski then hit the wall and had a flat left-front tire, forcing NASCAR to call a caution.
[Takeaways from Bristol: The race took two days, but it was certainly entertaining]
Busch’s tire issue had slowed his car significantly and he would have likely needed to make a green-flag pit stop that would have taken him out of the lead. But thanks to Keselowski’s caution, Busch was able to pit under yellow with the rest of the field and he worked his way back up to Larson over the final 28 laps of the race after dropping to fourth immediately after the restart.
After Busch got to second he quickly worked his way to Larson’s bumper and nudged Larson out of the way en route to the win.
The win is Busch’s seventh at Bristol, the most of any active driver in the Cup Series. Larson was searching for his first at the half-mile track and, along with Busch, was one of the race’s top contenders throughout the entirety of the two-day 500-lap race.
The race was postponed for rain after 204 laps were run on Sunday. Larson was the leader when the race was called and led for much of Monday even after he got spun around while leading.
Larson was lapping Ryan Newman’s car and cut down in front of Newman before he was clear. Larson didn’t hit anything when he spun around and only fell to second during the caution. He got back to the lead and was pulling away from Busch and the rest of the field when the caution flew for Keselowski’s issue.
Jimmie Johnson finished third and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fourth. Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman was fifth, his best-ever Cup Series finish.
Full results from Bristol:
1. Kyle Busch
2. Kyle Larson
3. Jimmie Johnson
4. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
5. Alex Bowman
6. Aric Almirola
7. Kevin Harvick
8. Clint Bowyer
9. Joey Logano
10. Ryan Newman
11. Daniel Suarez
12. David Ragan
13. Paul Menard
14. Denny Hamlin
15. Austin Dillon
16. Darrell Wallace Jr.
17. AJ Allmendinger
18. William Byron
19. Jamie McMurray
20. Landon Cassill
21. Matt DiBenedetto
22. Kurt Busch
23. Brad Keselowski
24. Trevor Bayne
25. Corey LaJoie
26. Erik Jones
27. DJ Kennington
28. Ty Dillon
29. Chase Elliott
30. Martin Truex Jr.
31. Gray Gaulding
32. Reed Sorenson
33. Chad Finchum
34. Kasey Kahne
35. Ryan Blaney
36. Chris Buesscher
37. Harrison Rhodes
38. Michael McDowell
39. Ross Chastain
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
