Busch wins the NNS Jeff Foxworthy’s Grit Chips 300 at Bristol

Kyle Busch won the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Jeff Foxworthy’s Grit Chips 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway in what was a thrilling end to a great race. Busch beat Kyle Larson by .023 seconds.

Larson finished second, Brian Vickers third, Sam Hornish Jr. fourth and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-5.

Allgaier led the field to the green flag and led the first lap at the Bullring of Bristol. Jeff Green was the first start and park when he took his No.10 car to the garage. Dillon and Keselowski made contact with each other but both continued on the race track.  On lap 24, Allgaier was approaching lap traffic and the No.7 of Smith caught up to him but could not complete the pass.

The first caution waved on lap 27 when the No.55 of Jamie Dick spun it and did a 360 but was okay and drove away. They went back to green on lap 31 with Allgaier continuing to lead.

The second caution waved on lap 60 when the No.5 of Brad Sweet spun it out on the backstretch. Sweet has had a tough weekend as he had a huge wreck with Joey Gase in practice and had to go to a backup car. Pit stops occurred for the first time this afternoon with all of the leaders coming in. The unique thing is, at Bristol, there is half of the pit road on the front stretch and half of the pit road on the back stretch. Bayne and Brian Scott only took 2 tires and will lead them to the green flag.

Green Flag was waved and Bayne led them around the track. Bayne led for eight laps before he got pressured by Busch for the top spot. Elliott Sadler was not having a good day and he got lapped on lap 75 telling his crew “That it will not run good and continued to fall back and on lap 88, he went to the garage after getting black flagged by NASCAR.

The third caution waved on lap 107 when the No.55 of Dick got spun by Vickers and then Nelson Piquet Jr had no room to go and t-boned into Dick’s car.  Busch, Keselowski and Smith stay out while Harvick and Bayne come in so it will be interesting to see what will happen.

They restarted on lap 118 with Busch leading  but was only 5 laps till the next caution coming out when the No.51 of Jeremy Clements slapped the wall in turn 2, sending debris down on the track. None of the leaders came in to pit.

Lap 130 they restarted and Busch continued to lead in the KBM Monster Energy ride but had to hold off the Discount tire car of Keselowski.

Lap 164 was when the yellow waved again for a big wreck in turn 1. The 70 of Brad Teague got into the No.44 of Hal Martin and collected Jeffery Earnhardt and Austin Dillon. Reed Sorenson also had some damage. All of the leaders came in and Keselowski led the field off of pit road. Allgaier was too fast exiting and had to go to the back of the field for the restart.

They restarted the race and Smith and Keselowski were battling it out for the lead. That did not last long as the caution came out once again for debris.

The restart came on lap 183 with Smith,Keselowski and Harvick all battling for the lead. Smith and Keselowski were battling and caught a lap car and bumped fenders and Smith feel back to 4th. Keselowski was battling a tire rub and it finally blew out on the backstretch and Harvick over took the lead. Keselowski came to pit road to repair the car and the caution came out for debris the following lap.

The green waved with 100 to go and Harvick cleared Busch as he was battling Hornish Jr for second. Busch finally cleared him and set his sights on the No.33.  Busch finally got to his bumper with 67 to go but could not finish the pass. Busch then tried the low side but could not work.  They finally got into lap traffic and were really close in couple of turns but they both raced safely and Busch took the lead with 58 to go. Larson was getting faster and faster each lap and finally got to the leaders and were 3 wide battling for the lead when the lap car of Robert Richardson JR got in the way and Larson bumped into him. Larson got little damage but it will not hurt him and he will be alright.

The caution waved for the 8th time when the No.00 of Jason White blew a tire. Nobody came in except for Harvick, who was 2nd, and Smith. It will be Busch vs Larson on the restart.

Restarted the race with 27 to go and Busch kept the lead. Larson tried to get Busch loose but held his car off of the No.54 and let him go. Harvick, who came in to pit road during the caution, has made up three positions since the restart.

Larson ran the fastest lap of the race with seven to go and was on Busch’s bumper with six to go. Larson got to the corner of Busch’s car but did not wreck him on the final lap and Busch won it by .023 seconds!