Written by Adrian Beecher
Bristol, TN – Kurt Busch won a wreck-filled Bristol Night Race to officially punch his ticket into the 2018 Playoffs, with just two races left in the regular season.
“It just matters to win. It’s all about winning. I’m Glad we did. We’ve been the most consistent team this year that hasn’t won.” said an excited Kurt Busch in Victory Lane. ” I wasn’t worried about not making the Playoffs, so we could kind of treat these races coming up as free-for-alls, and we’re just gonna keep going after it.”
Busch ran towards the front most of the night after starting 9th on Saturday. However, he didn’t take his first lead of the race until lap 477 as he passed Clint Bowyer on a restart from a caution, one of nine in the race.
“It was up to Bowyer to choose the lane. He chose the outside and we got a perfect start on the inside,” said Busch describing how he took the lead. “I dug it perfect right into turn one and two and the spotter said, `Take it. Take it, ‘ which meant go to the wall on exit and I didn’t even bother to look in the mirror.”
The trust between the No. 41 team has helped them to 15 top ten’s, four top fives and now one win this season. Now Busch sits 4th overall in the points standings with seven total playoff points.
“He said, ‘Take it.’ and when you trust your team to give you the right stuff setup-wise, you’ve got to trust the spotter the same way.” said Busch, “Tony Raines. He’s a race. That’s why he’s my spotter and it worked out perfect.”
Points Leaders Update
Kurt’s brother Kyle Busch, remains the points leader, after a wild race that saw him wreck on lap two and go down two laps. Then Kyle was able to battle back all the way onto the lead lap and into third place before an incident with Martin Truex Jr., who was running in second on lap 433. A late incident for Kyle would leave him with a 20th place finish.
Kyle leads the points race by 43 points over 7-time race winner this year, Kevin Harvick. After going down a lap on an unscheduled green-flag pit stop midway through the race, Harvick was able to battle back onto the lead lap for a 10th place finish.
Sitting third in the standings is Martin Truex Jr., who was in contention for the win until his incident with Kyle Busch on lap 433 sent him hard into the inside wall and took a hard lick going up the track into the No. 7 of JJ Yeley. This would end Martin’s night with a 30th place finish.
Next Stop Darlington
The Monster Energy Cup Series will take a week off ahead of a Sunday, September 2nd race night at Darlington Raceway in the Bo’Jangles Southern 500.
