NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Carl Edwards (19) leads a restart during a rain delayed Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Pacific today. Bristol will begin transforming the race track into a football field to host Tennessee and Virginia Tech on September 10 after the conclusion of the Sprint Cup race. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. put on a late charge to finish a season-high second, with Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon and Chris Buescher rounding out the top five.
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Rain continues to plague the Sprint Cup race this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Thanks to the win, Harvick is now third in the point standings and he’ll look to gain more ground on the leaders when he suits up again at Michigan International Speedway on August 28.
When action got back under way Sunday night, the field lined up in the order it had been running Saturday night when the rains came. I’m really proud of the team. Kurt shot out to the lead on the restart after Kyle’s crash, but got loose coming out of Turn Two and ended up spinning out in front the entire field.
Kyle Busch dominated most of the race, leading 254 of the first 350 laps before developing problems with the rear housing of his auto.
“We’ve had the performance that we’ve needed in the cars nearly every week and it’s been one of those deals where things didn’t go exactly right”. “I tell you what, my butt’s kicked right now”.
Keselowski said there was nothing he could do to prevent his No. 2 Ford from hitting Busch’s auto.
“Proud of (crew chief) Slugger (Labbe), proud of my pit crew – they really stepped up and that means a lot getting ready to what we’re going into”.
However, when Ku. Busch took the lead on lap 373, the Monster Energy vehicle got loose on the back straightaway and collected Keselowski.
NASCAR struggled just to run the race. When the track dried, the race returned to yellow on Lap 446 with Harvick in the lead, followed by Hamlin, Johnson, Dillon and Jamie McMurray. The race was red-flagged due to rain. “And it’s been one of those deals where things have just not gone exactly right”. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do”. I absolutely love this race track. “That’s stupid, so I don’t know – frustrating day”.
THE BIG ONE: It came on lap 373 on a restart after Kyle Busch was knocked out by an accident.
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Pole-sitter Carl Edwards, the victor at the track in the spring, led a top five qualifying filled with Joe Gibbs Racing racers. The lower portion of the track was “polished” with a sticky substance to increase traction since the Sprint Cup Series last visited in March in an attempt to get drivers to use the lower line on the track.
