Late pass gets Busch 2nd victory in a row
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kyle Busch stood on the hood of his No. 18 Toyota shaking his fists as the snow began falling around him. It was that kind of a long weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Busch won the rain-delayed race at the half-mile track on a cold, dark Monday for his second straight Cup Series victory. He also won the previous weekend at Texas.
Busch passed Kyle Larson with five laps remaining following a restart with 22 laps left.
It was Busch’s 45th career Cup win and marks the fifth time that he has won back-toback races. It also was Busch’s seventh win at Bristol.
A frustrated Larson finished second and Jimmie Johnson was third, earning his first top-five finish of the season. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fourth and Alex Bowman finished fifth.
Larson led 200 of the 500 laps but had to hold off Busch and Stenhouse after the last restart. He did for a while, but Busch passed him and began to take control.
Brad Keselowski won the first two stages and appeared to be the car to beat. However, the No. 2 Ford struggled on a long green-flag run late in the race and fell two laps behind after telling his crew that something broke in his suspension. Keselowski hit the wall with 30 laps left, bringing out the final caution.
Larson was leading when the race was postponed Sunday with 296 laps remaining after being delayed several times because of rain. The race also was delayed Monday for about 35 minutes, but the cars finally got back on the track after the rain and sleet subsided. Briefly: Daniel Suarez raced with a fractured thumb he suffered the previous week at Texas and finished in 11th place . ... Martin Truex Jr. continues to have a difficult time following up a championship season in 2017. He was in a wreck Sunday and raced without a hood, saying his goal was to “stay out of the way” of the other drivers. He has just one win this season.
Darrell “Bubba” Wallace now knows what it is like to run up front in a Cup Series race. Wallace passed Busch, the pole sitter, with 126 laps remaining to lead a Cup race for the first time in his young career. It didn’t last long, though, as Busch passed Wallace a short time later before a brief yellow flag for rain.