Kyle Busch's Revenge

Even before the start of the Food City 500, Kyle Busch declared that Bristol Motor Speedway owed him a victory and that he would do everything possible to obtain it. After all, the pilot of the Toyota No. 18 was legitimately right, since he led no less than 415 of the 500 laps of the race last August, before finishing second.

On the Bristol short track, Kyle Busch did not wait long to take the lead and claim his second victory of the season, masterfully leading 378 of the 503 laps in the race.

The driver of the No. 18 Toyota held off his teammate Denny Hamlin until the end and crossed the line with a 0?391 lead at the finish. This is the 14th career victory for the youngest of the Busch brothers, the 10th since his arrival at Joe Gibbs Racing at the start of 2008.

“It was just a great day. », declared Busch, barely out of the car. This second success at Bristol also puts an end to a series of 13 victories on 13 different circuits.

Triple reigning champion Jimmie Johnson equaled his best result on the Bristol oval dating back to August 2004, finishing in third place, just ahead of his teammate and boss Jeff Gordon. The latter took the opportunity to widen the gap a little further in the championship. Kasey Kahne finished fifth, collecting his second career Top 5 on the famous Tennessee half-mile.

Pole sitter Mark Martin, Ryan Newman, Jeff Burton, Juan Pablo Montoya and Marcos Ambrose complete the Top 10. Note that this is also the best result of the latter on an oval, since until then he had never done better than 17th on this type of track. The rookie and teammate of Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, was once again forced to retire, victim of his engine exploding less than 50 laps from the finish.

During the 9th and final restart resulting from this Logano incident, Denny Hamlin, then second, was unable to keep up with Busch's pace and quickly fell behind.

“We had a good car. », explained Hamlin, who still gained six places in the general classification. “Everything was going very well on the long runs, but I was losing a little ground on the straights during the restarts. When the yellow flag waved with 60 laps to go, I knew it was going to be difficult. Kyle's car was really fast. »

The last refueling under yellow flag, after Kevin Harvick's accident, also cost Johnson dearly. After an unusually long pit stop, the No. 48 Chevrolet lost three places and found itself fifth on lap 450.

“We had a problem with the left rear wheel, I think Jack didn't lift the car enough. », declared the reigning champion.

Johnson finally managed to take the advantage over Martin and Kahne, before Logano lost his engine, spilling oil on the track and thus giving overtime to the fans.

With this new victory, brothers Kyle and Kurt Busch combined for three consecutive victories for the second year in a row. Kyle won in Las Vegas and Kurt in Atlanta. In 2008, this series had reached four races.

In the championship, Kyle Busch gains three positions and is now in fourth place with 85 points behind Gordon. Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer are second and third at 76 and 79 points respectively.