Battle of the Busch’s: Kurt Busch Wins Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway

Kurt Busch ended the night victorious at Kentucky Speedway in a spectacular finish between he and brother Kyle Busch with two circuits remaining. The older Busch brother, driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, took the lead on a restart with two laps remaining in NASCAR Overtime and after bumping with brother Kyle Busch on the final lap, Kurt Busch was able to score his 31st career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory.

“Hell ya! Hell ya! Racing your little brother every week….I’m proud of him, I’m proud that he gave me a little bit of room on that outside,” Kurt Busch told NBCSN on the start / finish line. “He could have clobbered us against the wall and third place is probably what we would have got. But what an awesome run! We got this Monster Chevy in Victory Lane! Thank you, Kentucky!”

Kyle Busch, winner of stage two, led 72 of the 269 circuits of the evening at the 1.5-mile oval. The series veteran will leave Kentucky Speedway with 10 top five and 15 top 10 finishes through 19 races in 2019.

“Glad it was a thriller. It’s just unfortunate we were on the wrong end of the deal for everybody at M&Ms and Toyota, Interstate Batteries, all the folks that get us to where we’re at,” said Kyle Busch. “Congratulations to Kurt (Busch) and Chip (Ganassi) and Monster, all the guys over there. It’s obviously cool to put on great races and great finishes and I’ve been a part of a lot of them and not very many, in fact none with my brother like that. That was a first. No hard feelings.”

Kurt Busch, winner of stage one, sat seventh in stage two and led the field for 41 laps. The Las Vegas native goes into New Hampshire Motor Speedway, race 20 of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series campaign, with five top five and 11 top 10 finishes.

Kurt Busch nearly found himself celebrating in victory lane last weekend at Daytona International Speedway. However, crew chief Matt McCall called Busch to pit road before storms approached the speedway to delay the event, giving the win to Justin Haley.

“We got a yellow at the end that put us back,” said Busch. “Whatever last week was, it’s this week right now and we got the trophy!”

Erik Jones sat third on the leaderboard when the checkered flag waved in his No. 20 Craftsman Toyota. Jones sat 19th in stage one and second behind teammate Kyle Busch in stage two.

Jones, a Michigan native, leaves Kentucky with five top five and nine top 10s.

Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.

Taking home top 10 finishes were Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, pole sitter Daniel Suarez, Ryan Newman and Chris Buescher.

Logano held the lead when the caution came out for Bubba Wallace in turn two on lap 262 of 267. The caution involving the No. 43 Chevrolet blowing a tire sent the Quaker State 400 into overtime.

The driver of the No. 22 Shell / Penzoil Ford finished seventh and holds 13 top 10 finishes this season going into New Hampshire Motor Speedway next weekend.

The race saw 15 lead changes between 10 drivers and had seven yellow flags.

The next race for NASCAR’s premier series will take place at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 21. The Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 will air live on NBCSN at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Brett Winningham
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