Beaten-up cars, emotion-filled drivers, numerous cautions, close bumper-to-bumper racing.
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Fireworks going off during the national anthem.
Edwards started on the pole and led a race-high 276 (of 500) laps. Racing fans agree this is a phenomenal win considering three of his teammates – Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, and Denny Hamlin – all had tire troubles and other misfortunes during the race.
There were 15 cautions in the race, including five in the final 100 laps. Tire issues apparently biting them, but Edwards was immune, leading 246 of the 500 laps. “They understand nobody else is having the same issues”.
“I at no point felt comfortable”, Edwards said.
“We just battled through it”, Busch said. I didn’t qualify as well as we wanted on Friday, but we hit on a couple of things, I thought, right there towards the end of final practice yesterday that we really liked. His weekend started well, winning the pole, his second of the season, and he led the most laps. “But for some reason with our vehicle we didn’t have any of those issues”, he said. The track is little, the cars are fast and the patience is thin. “I figured that was our only chance, we could go up there and see if it holds, and I went up there and it stuck”.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. overcame a loss of power before the race was officially underway. He’s only scored two top five’s at Bristol and hasn’t scored one in seven straight races overall. They were just flawless on pit road. Jr. fell two laps down to the field, leaving the team with a big hole to dig out of.
“We’ll work on that and maybe raise that threshold a little bit, because I wasn’t really using the brake that much”.
“We got a lot a luck on those last several restarts and being able to start on the outside”, Earnhardt said. “We restarted 10th, 6th and 4th, and when you restart 4th you’re typically going to come out in second place after that”. “I was encouraged, again, today, even though we don’t have the result”.
He wasn’t the only feel-good story of the race though.
“…Guys brought a good auto this weekend”, said Elliott. “But after I started bending around, it started hurting”.
Edwards posted his seventh top 10 in eight races, climbed to second in the series standings (one point behind Harvick) and, first and foremost, all but assured himself of a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
“Bristol is a tough racetrack and you have to have a good vehicle”, Bayne said.
“It’s really awesome to have a win”, noted Edwards, “so we can now have some fun and focus on a championship”. Matt DiBenedetto was teary-eyed on pit road after finishing a career-best sixth. The driver of the No. 83 Cosmo Motors Toyota has struggled to find success early on in his career.
For Bayne, the top-5 finish is the first for the Tennessee native since his Daytona 500 win in 2011. “Hopefully, we can turn this into a win”. “I am so excited”. The garage can be a very crowded place, especially at smaller tracks or high-profile races.
Including the Xfinity Series preliminary races at the Texas Motor Speedway and Bristol, the Gibbs team has won five straight.
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Next week the drivers stay on the short tracks with the Toyota Owners 400 at the three-quarter-mile Richmond International Raceway.
