Kyle Busch makes it 2 for 2 at Bristol winning the Food City 250

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August 23, 2013

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 21^st. 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 34^th and 35^th 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 12^th 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 13^th. Jeff Green, subbing for Eric McClure, had an impressive run finishing 16^th.

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.

Denny Hamlin grabs the pole for the Irwin Tools Night Race

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SM Staff

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August 23, 2013

Denny Hamlin, who has had a very troublesome season, finally had something to smile about. On Friday, he drove his No. 11 Fed-Ex Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the top spot in qualifying for the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Hamlin turned a lap of 128.969 mph to secure the top spot. The pole was Hamlin’s fourth of the season, and 16^th of his career.

Hamlin who sat out four races earlier this season after receiving a back injury in the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, has had very little success since his return. He did score poles at Charlotte and Dover, race results, however, have not been very good.

Hamlin talked about the lap after qualifying saying, “We felt like we had a pretty good handle on our car during practice and for whatever reason when that small rain storm came, it obviously changed the race track a bunch –washed out a little bit of what cushion we had on the top line away and you saw a lot of guys slipping over that edge during qualifying.”

Kurt Busch continued his streak of solid runs with a second place starting spot. Busch who scraped the wall on one of his qualifying laps turned a lap of 128.770 mph, just shy of Hamlin’s pole speed. Busch was in the news again this week has Stewart-Hass Racing has confirmed they have made him an offer to driver for them next year. He

Roush-Fenway Racing driver, Carl Edwards, took the third spot in his No. 99 Fastenal Ford, with a lap of 128.692 mph. Edwards commented, “We’re qualifying ok, we just need to be a little bit faster, I believe. This is a fun racetrack and I am hoping tomorrow night that the top slows down a little bit and you can have some good two or three wide racing here tomorrow.”

Starting fourth will be Brian Vickers who announced early this week that he will be the full time drive for the No. 55 Aaron’s Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing. It was then announced later in the week that he would finish the season in the seat, with the exception of Talladega, when Mark Martin was granted his release to drive the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet for the injured Tony Stewart. Vickers turned in a lap of 128.684 mph.

Joe Gibb Racing driver, Matt Kenseth, rounded out the top five in his Dollar General Toyota. Kenseth who is tied with series points leader Jimmie Johnson with four wins on the season, turned in a lap of 128.692 mph.

Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch were among several driver who had issues who had handling issues in qualifying. After slipping on lap one, Busch turned around, drove backwards around the track and restarted in an attempt to get a good second lap. He then, however, tagged the wall coming out of turn two and will start 43^rd on Saturday.

Other notables: Last week’s winner, Joey Logano, will start sixth, Mark Martin rolls off eleventh in his debut in the No. 14 car. Points leader Jimmie Johnson starts 13^th, Dale Earnhardt Jr will take the green in 19^th.

The Irwin Tools Night race will start at 7:30 pm local time on Saturday night.

Edwards Leads Ford Qualifiers With Third-Place Run at Bristol

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August 23, 2013

CHEVY NSCS AT BRISTOL TWO: Post Race Notes and Quotes

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August 23, 2013

CHEVY NSCS AT BRISTOL TWO: Kurt Busch Post Qualifying Press Conf. Transcript

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August 23, 2013

Toyota NSCS Bristol Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes

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August 23, 2013

Logano: ‘We can’t race scared’ to get into the Chase

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SM Staff

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August 23, 2013

20130601085843-a391fc9d-me — Photo Credit: Gary Buchanan

Until last weekend in Michigan, Joey Logano and his Penske Racing 22 team had done almost everything they hoped for when starting the season together in February.

While it took the team much longer to win their first pole and race than anticipated, they’ve been relevant and competitive. Now that they’ve accomplished both though, it’s given Logano everything he wanted when starting fresh with a new organization. Even if it’s been a season full of ups and downs, which makes life fun, he says.

“That’s the cool thing about racing is you never know what’s gonna happen,” he said Friday at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

“You just kind of go with the flow, at least the way I live life, I just kind of go with it. I think this year has had a lot of ups and downs and about every situation you can go through in one season, so I look at it as being pretty entertaining and a lot of fun out there.”

Logano notes that the chemistry between he and crew chief Todd Gordon has been growing ever since they met. The organization knows how to build fast race cars and he and 2012 champion Brad Keselowski have worked well together. Everything as it was planned when the season was approached.

“The only thing we haven’t been able to do is have the points to back that up like we need.”

Even so, Logano is in Chase contention. After last weekend’s dominating win at Michigan he sits just outside of a wild card spot and less than 20 points from the top 10. Unfortunately, Logano feels there’s 150 points he’s missed out on because of troubles through the early part of the season. Fuel pressure issues, a wreck at Kansas, a rock going through the radiator at Talladega and then back-to-back 40th place finishes at Daytona and New Hampshire.

And don’t forget the NASCAR penalty following inspection at Texas. Had it not been for those, he’d be sitting pretty inside the top 10 in points. Instead, he enters Bristol fighting for a Chase spot with three races remaining. Making his win last weekend even sweeter.

“The win was huge. Obviously, it couldn’t come at a better time and at a better race track to keep our Chase hopes going,” he said.

“I felt like our two best shots were last weekend and this weekend. We capitalized 100 percent last week with the pole and leading the most laps and winning the race, and I feel like we’ve got another really good shot at it this weekend and do the same stuff after seeing the way we ran here in the spring.”

He and Denny Hamlin were racing in the top five when Hamlin spun him out. Logano made a beeline for Hamlin on pit road after the race, and then the two went at it a week later in California for the win on the last lap before wrecking again. Hamlin suffered a broken back in the accident and missed a few races, since his return he and Logano have steered clear of each other.

Saturday night the two are expected to be near the front again. It’s not on Logano’s mind however, his focus remaining on carrying his momentum forward. It’s just another race weekend.

“Go out there and get the best finish you possibly can, not racing other cars. Don’t focus on what the 16 [Greg Biffle] is doing, focus on what you’re doing to get the best finish you can,” Logano said about the conversation he and Gordon had coming into the weekend, which won’t include changing their strategy if they see their competition doing something different.

“Do what you’ve got to do to make sure you finish the best you can and not racing one car. You’re racing 42 cars and we can’t race like that. We can’t race scared. We’re coming from behind. We’re not in it, so we can still race aggressive and still go out there and go for wins, but we’ve got to be able to get the best finish we can out of every day no matter what.”

Logano qualified sixth for Saturday night’s race.