As the Drive to Stop Diabetes 300 presented by Lilly Diabetes pressed on, it didn’t appear that Kyle Busch would make it three wins in a row at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, but you should never count out Kyle Busch. His Joe Gibbs Racing team fought back from handling issues to vault back into the lead and claim his second win of the season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
For much of the day, Joe Gibbs Racing’s teammate Matt Kenseth was the class of the field in his No. 20 GameStop Toyota Camry, while Busch, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competitor Kevin Harvick and the rest of the field chased Kenseth in his first NNS Bristol race since 2009.
After a lap four caution involving Jeffrey Earnhardt, the field went 88 laps green, which put a majority of the field one lap or more behind until Lap 96 when a debris caution put the field back under yellow and sent the leaders to pit road.
Kenseth brought the field back to green on Lap 98 and held it until Lap 136, when Mike Bliss wrecked in Turn four. The 28-time NNS winner continued to hold command of the race until Lap 210, when Busch, who started second retook the lead and held off Kyle Larson on a late-race restart to win his 65th Nationwide Series win.
With his triumph on Saturday, Kyle Busch’s 16 victories (five – cup; seven – nationwide and four – trucks) became the all-time winningest driver in NASCAR history at one particular track. Dale Earnhardt Sr. has 34 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, but not all of those were points-paying events.
“We really had to change our car a lot today,” said Busch. “Adam (Stevens, crew chief) made some really good calls on the pit box and tried to get me freed up and trying to get me to where I could roll and make some speed up. This Monster Energy Toyota Camry was awesome. It was in practice and it was again here in the race. A couple of those guys got close — (Matt) Kenseth, he was really fast. He was lightening fast there much of the day and I was having a hard time catching him. I was just able to bide my time through traffic a little bit better than he did and he got stuck and I passed him kind of the same way he did to me earlier in the race. Hopefully, we can sweep the weekend.”
Kevin Harvick was third in the No. 5 Armor Vienna Sausages Chevrolet Camaro for JR Motorsports, while Ryan Blaney and Kenseth, whose car deteriorated late rounded out the top-five.
Ty Dillon, the leading Sunoco Rookie was sixth ahead of Richard Childress Racing teammate Brendan Gaughan, Trevor Bayne, Chase Elliott and Regan Smith to comprise the remainder of the top-10.
Cale Conley in his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut impressed immensely with an 11th place finish after starting 12th. Conley will run a limited schedule for RCR in 2014. Conley was also competing in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race at BMS.
Landon Cassill after a hard wreck in the final minutes of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series happy hour bounced back superbly for a 12th place run for JD Motorsports with Gary Keller.
James Buescher and Brian Scott, who both showed speed early in the race had to settle for 13th and 14th respectively, while Dylan Kwasniewski, who popped the wall in qualifying rebounded for 15th.
Elliott Sadler salvaged a decent finish with a 17th place run after pitting under green for a loose wheel.
Jeremy Clements, Joe Nemechek and Ryan Sieg closed out the top-20.
Other field notables: Will Kimmel (22nd), Dakoda Armstrong (24th), Mike Wallace (25th) Josh Wise (30th) and Kelly Admriaal (35th).
Next up for the NASCAR Nationwide Series is a return trip back out west for the running of the TreatMyClot.com 300 at Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway on Saturday, March 22.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
