“Just so cool, man. Awesome to be here”. Thanks to Sprint and Cessna and all the folks that make this happen. Larson and Jones broke away from the pack when second place Kyle Busch struggled to get rolling. The day featured this year’s new Dash 4 Cash format with a pair of 50-lap heats preceding the 200-lap main event.
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NO START: On the green flag, Earnhardt Jr.’s vehicle simply didn’t go when he mashed the gas pedal. The two hung out before the race before Manning audibled and left early.
“Greg (Ives, crew chief) did a good job getting wave arounds, knowing when to take them”, Earnhardt said after the race. The vehicle was about a 15th, 10th place auto. “We were just lucky on those restarts as to where we lined up and that really helped us”. “And that really helped us”. Logano had actually won the last two Fall races at Bristol and will look for his third overall. I’m not sure anything can be done to make the series’ trip to Indianapolis anything other than coma-inducing (that’s a story for another column), but it’s likely to produce a similar result at Richmond and Dover, both of which are a mile or less in length and lend themselves to close racing and contact when the action gets frantic. “Right now we’ve had fast cars and we haven’t been able to capitalize”. Joe Gibbs Racing appeared dominant in practice, but Edwards was the only driver who survived tire problems.
“There was some concern”, about tires, Edwards said, “but for some reason, our vehicle didn’t have any of those issues”. You can’t really count on anything. “I’m about sick and exhausted of coming here since it sucks to race”.
Bristol won’t rank at the top of the list of Johnson’s best tracks, but he has been as good as any driver here in recent years.
Said Larson, “I didn’t want to see that caution because we were tight on the short runs”. The first one was a little confusing. “We had a really fast auto”. I’ll take a chance on his high ceiling.
Kenseth said he also didn’t know what was causing his tire problems or if there was any connection with Busch’s situation. His efforts were finally put out of their misery when he hit the wall on lap 260 and headed to the garage. This is the fourth time Edwards has won the Bristol race.
Harvick maintained his season points lead, but only by one point over Edwards, 287-286.
“There was so many different things happening there – different things happening at different times”, the pole-sitter said from victory lane. “I figured at some point in the year we could get a win when those guys weren’t in the field, but it would be a tall task with them in the field”.
Rounding out Sunday’s top ten was Matt Dibenedetto in sixth, followed by Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Newman and Joey Logano.
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Kyle Busch now leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings with 259 points so far for the season. Will Kenseth’s bad luck continue at Bristol?Matt Kenseth – Matt Kenseth hasn’t been great this season, but he is the defending champion at the Food City 500.
