Kyle Busch earned his second-straight weekend sweep at Bristol Motor Speedway, claiming the Jeff Byrd 500 Presented by Food City.
Last August, Busch won the O’Reilly Auto Parts 200, Food City 250 and IRWIN Tools Night Race to sweep at Bristol. He won Saturday’s Scotts EZ Seed 300 Nationwide Series race, as well, making Sunday’s victory his fifth straight victory at the World’s Fastest Half-Mile.
On a restart with 38 laps to go, Busch led, with Carl Edwards second and Jimmie Johnson third. Edwards worked hard to get around Busch, trying to pass the No. 18 machine high and low. Edwards made his way around Busch, only to have Busch drive back by the next lap.
Johnson lurked in third place, just a few car lengths behind, as the two leaders battled side-by-side waiting for a mistake. Busch, however, was able to pull ahead and found himself crossing under the checkered flag in first.
“It was a lot harder today,” he explained. “Carl kept me honest. I made a couple of mistakes, but we came out okay… You have to be patient sometimes, and then other times put it up through the middle.
“The guys won it on the last pit stop. I don’t think I could have gotten by Carl. Then, I was worried Jimmie might get by him and come razzle me.”
Busch, once again, was thrilled to bring home a win in Thunder Valley after a tough battle with Edwards and Johnson at the end.
“It is awesome to come to Bristol and win in front of these fans,” he said. “We put it all together when it mattered the most. I love coming to Bristol. There is nothing not fun about Bristol. I’m sure they’ll be partying outside tonight.
“I thought the finish was going to be reminiscent of 2008 when he [Edwards] drove in to me. When Joey [Logano] hit the wall, it jarred me a little bit. But I got my thoughts back together.
The significance of winning the race named after Jeff Byrd, the former President and General Manager at BMS who died last October, was not lost on Busch.
“It is cool to have a race named after Jeff Byrd; he meant a lot to the sport and this track. To win the Jeff Byrd 500 means a lot. Thanks to Food City for giving up the race name to do that.”
Edwards admitted after the race that he considered putting the bumper to Busch, but did not want to make the move too early. As it turns out, he did not have a second opportunity.
“It was exciting,” Edwards said. “I thought I could get to him at the end and rough him up a little bit and maybe get by him, but his car took off. I just told them [the crew] I should have hit him harder when I got to his bumper the first time, but we were racing really hard.
“His car was better there at the end. I didn’t know how fast Jimmie was, so I thought, ‘Man, if we start roughing each other up, it might end up worse for us in general.’ But it was a good race at Bristol. Kyle did a good job. Our team did a good job. We’ve got to thank all the fans and we appreciate them coming out and supporting us.”
“It was a good race at Bristol; it was fun… I told him after Phoenix, I owed him one. I decided I’d let him go…hindsight is 20/20.”
Johnson who was just behind the leaders, waited for the perfect opportunity to strike.
“We were all running hard,” he said. “There were a couple moments where I thought I’d be given a big gift. There was nowhere for me to go though. I left some room, but I still ran hard.”
Matt Kenseth finished fourth and Paul Menard came home in fifth, his third career top-five. Kevin Harvick was sixth, while Kurt Busch finished seventh and left Bristol as the points leader, by a single point over Edwards. Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman rounded out the top 10.
Edwards’ finish moved him up to second in the standings, just one marker out of first. Teammates Tony Stewart and Newman are tied for third, with Menard in fifth.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to Bristol for the IRWIN Tools Night Race on Aug. 27.
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