Rains caused lengthy delays to Saturday’s scheduled start of the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, but the postponement until Sunday afternoon meant the race might finish under the lights after all.
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Sunday’s NASCAR race was delayed by rain and originally was scheduled to take place the night before.
Don’t think the driver’s tempers tapered off like the rain Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Really from the drop of the green flag the auto was was really fast Kevin Harvick Concord and elusive racing surface driving up from his 24 starting spot. “I’d been wrecking for half a lap and they just came through and cleaned us out”. “I drove the vehicle at 101 percent, got loose and it was away from me”.
Harvick led 128 laps for his second NASCAR Sprint Cup victory of the season and his second at the high-banked, half-mile concrete bullring.
The victory was Harvick’s second of the season and second at Bristol – his first in 11 years.
Dillon moved up to 13th in the Chase-qualifying standings, putting three drivers between himself and the current cutoff with three races – Michigan, Darlington and Richmond – remaining.
Yet while the Toyota juggernaut just steams along this season, Kevin Harvick has quietly gone about doing what he’s done throughout his three-year tenure with Stewart-Haas Racing: running consistently up front, challenging for wins and regularly knocking out top-five finishes.
“I walked to the bathroom during that one caution after that and just thought about what’s the right thing to do”. I really just want to applaud the racetrack for the effort that they made this weekend to get that bottom groove working so we had multiple grooves of racing.
“Tonight, you could hold your ground, you could get past lapped cars”, he said. The three-time Sprint Cup champion is retiring at the end of this season, and finished 30th, and obliged Harvick’s invitation to celebrate with a burnout on the frontstretch. He wanted Stewart to share the victory lap, but “Tony and I aren’t very good at sign language from one seat to another”, he said.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was second, followed by Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon and Chris Buescher. On Sunday, Busch led a race-high 256 laps, yet got hit by Justin Allgaier after a spin. But he spun on Lap 358 when a part broke and Justin Allgaier, driving in relief of Michael Annett, hit the No. 18 auto flush to end the defending series champ’s race. “You know, as the night was going on and we became the dominant vehicle and started to lead the race, that’s when everybody’s nerves get up, and we started having mistakes”. As some runs windows are closed just keep turn the best that was really our fans and you know for him for me I was excited that you’re able to use the bottom of the racetrack. “Let’s go home”, Busch said. Busch threw his helmet and called both Allgaier and his spotter the “biggest moron (s) out there”. “That is the worst possible scenario when the leader spins out and you hit them”, Allgaier said.
That was the sentiment of many at Bristol. We pitted for that and had a lug nut off the left-rear, so we came in to fix that and then it rained and the track just changed. Crews nearly immediately started the expected 19-day process to convert the iconic NASCAR track into a frenzied football field in time for No. 9 Tennessee to face Virginia Tech.
WHOS HOT: Austin Dillon, the surprise victor of the Xfinity race here Friday night, found himself competing for the victory on the final restart with 51 laps to go. The result was a boost to Dillons Chase chances, too, who came in as one of the drivers qualifying on points and left with that intact.
WHO’S NOT: Tony Stewart was hoping to lock up his Chase spot – he’s got a win but stands 27th in points – with a strong Bristol finish.
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“Confidence and momentum go a long ways in racing, baseball, football, basketball, whatever it is, and you just want to ride the wave”. Thats stupid, said Kyle Busch, who wrecked on lap 373 after leading 258 laps. Kurt Busch slid up and was hit by Brad Keselowski, touching off a 10-car wreck that caught up contenders Kyle Larson, Blaney, Chase Elliott and Matt Kenseth. The win also represented the first by a Chevrolet driver in the Bristol night race in a dozen years.
