After breaking the Sprint Cup qualifying record and securing the pole for the Food City 500, leading Happy Hour practice, and winning the Jeff Foxworthy’s Grit Chips 300, Kyle Busch seemed to be the driver to beat this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Busch’s previous wins at Bristol include five Sprint Cup races, five Nationwide races, and three Camping World Truck races. Busch needed no introduction to fans at the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.” Before pitching the microphone to the side during driver introductions on Sunday, Busch said “I may not be Darrell Waltrip, but I don’t need an introduction!”
Busch led the first 56 laps of the Food City 500 before being penalized on pit road, which landed him in 38th position coming out of one of the many ServiceMaster Clean cautions of the day.
In under 200 laps Busch had battled his way back to the front of the pack. The last 50 laps had fans on their feet as Busch battled defending series champion, Brad Keselowski, for 2nd place. After clearing Keselowski, Busch was hoping for a caution going into the final laps to close the gap between him and Kasey Kahne. Unfortunately for Busch, the race continued under green, and he finished 2nd as Kasey Kahne won his first Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.