Kyle Busch is one step closer to sweeping the weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. After having to come from behind and almost a lap down on Wednesday night in the Camping World Truck Series race, Busch dominated the Food City 250 on Friday night leading 228 lap of the 250 lap race. In victory lane, sounding confident Kyle said, “You gotta win two to win three.” Tonight’s win also gave Kyle the most national series wins at Bristol with a total of fifteen.
Busch jumped out front at the drop of the green and didn’t look back. In the early stages of the race, began lapping cars quickly. A yellow flew on lap 65, Busch stayed out and did not pit. It did not seem to make much difference, Busch still had the dominant car.
Pit strategy put Kyle Larson in the lead at lap 109, but it did not take long for Busch to find his way back to the front. Larson led 22 laps before relinquishing the top spot back to Busch.
Drew Herring hits the wall hard in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing entry after contact with Mike Bliss. Herring stays on track and gestures to Bliss during caution laps. Later in the garage, Herring said, “I don’t know what the 19 was thinking. He wrecked us for no reason.”
Just a few short laps later, a major crash with huge points implications. Regan Smith, who came into the race tied for third in the standings with Austin Dillon, gets into the wall. Smith would end up four laps off the pace, finishing 21st. He is now 24 points behind the leader, after leading by 58 points just a few weeks ago.
Brian Vickers and Parker Kligerman suffered a similar fate just a few laps later, with both drivers crashing hard on the front stretch. Vickers and Kligerman ended up 34th and 35th respectively.
Behind the domination of Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski comes home second. Austin Dillon had a solid points night finishing third and moves into second spot in the series standings just six points behind the leader Sam Hornish who finished 12th after suffering a broken spark plug wire.
Justin Allgaier finishes fourth in the Brandt Chevrolet, with rookie Kyle Larson taking fifth in his No. 32 Cottonelle Chevrolet.
Other notables: championship contender, Elliott Sadler had a solid night finishing tenth. Travis Pastrana with a good effort in 13th. Jeff Green, subbing for Eric McClure, had an impressive run finishing 16th.
We will now see if Kyle Busch can pull off a second weekend sweep at The Last Great Colosseum, Bristol Motor Speedway tomorrow night in the Irwin Tools Night Race.
