By Staff Report | NASCAR.com
Kyle Busch completed the second leg in a potential Bristol Motor Speedway tripleheader sweep, rallying to victory in the NASCAR XFINITY Series on Friday night.
Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota led a race-high 186 of 300 laps in the Food City 300. He also converted a come-from-behind victory Wednesday in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
Busch was bitten by a pit-road speeding penalty during the intermission after his Stage 1 win, forcing him to restart in 19th place. But Busch roared back to the front — much like he did in his midweek truck win — in 58 laps to take Stage 2 and position himself for another victory on the .533-mile track.
“At least I didn’t have to come through in the last stage because everybody was pretty fast there tonight in the last stage,” said Busch, whose Truck Series comeback came in the final stage. “I don’t know if I would have been able to make it all the way back up through there.”
Busch’s fifth XFINITY win of the season was his ninth at Bristol and the 91st of his career. He’ll go for the tripleheader sweep in Saturday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series main event (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM), a Bristol feat he also accomplished in 2010.
“I think we can, yeah,” Busch said of his chances, starting 18th in Bristol’s annual night race. “We’ve got a fast car. We just have to make the right adjustments overnight here and get it ready for tomorrow.”
Daniel Suarez, Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, netted second place in the No. 20 Toyota, finishing 1.181 seconds behind Busch at the checkered flag.
Series points leader Elliott Sadler finished third, clinching a playoff spot by ensuring himself a top-20 result in the regular-season standings. Ty Dillon and Justin Allgaier completed the top five.
The series’ next race is scheduled Aug. 27 at Road America, the sprawling 4.048-mile road course in Elkhart Lake, Wis.
Related Links: Race results | Series standings
