Busch rallies to win caution-marred Bristol race

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- In a race where the typical Bristol gremlins came out early and often, Kyle Busch managed to get his out of the way before the green flag waved.

The result was a commanding victory for Busch in Wednesday night's O'Reilly 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

After winning the pole but being forced to start at the rear because of pre-race engine repairs under impound rules, Busch moved forward in a hurry. He took the lead when Mike Skinner pitted for the first time on Lap 91 of 206 and survived a green-white-checkered finish for his third triumph of the season in his No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota.

Busch, whose only pit stop came around Lap 30, overcame a late fuel scare to win his third consecutive series race at Bristol.

"I wasn't 100 percent aggressive on saving fuel, but I was 92 percent," said Busch, who led the final 116 laps. "There was concerns all around. It ran out of fuel on the second-to-last restart and it ran out on the last restart. I was worried."

Aric Almirola finished second, followed by Ron Hornaday, who rallied from a spin and a lost lap. Skinner and rookie Justin Lofton completed the top five. Points leader Todd Bodine finished sixth, and his lead over Almirola took a small hit from 231 to 211 points.

The race was slowed by a record-setting 13 cautions, including eight in the first 85 laps.

But the most vicious came on Lap 198, when Ken Schrader slammed hard into the right side of the spinning truck of David Starr. It brought out a red flag and forced the race to go six laps past its scheduled distance. Both drivers walked away uninjured.

"It was a pretty hard hit," Starr said.

A more consequential incident involved Sprint Cup regular Elliott Sadler and Timothy Peters. Battling for second in the closing laps, Sadler hooked the right rear of Peters' truck on the backstretch, sending the No. 17 Toyota into the wall and to pit road for repairs. Peters, who is third in the standings, recovered to finish eighth.

Sadler moved into second momentarily but hit the wall several laps later when the right-front tire on his Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet let go on Lap 185. He finished 26th.

Rookie Austin Dillon also had a rough night, and his streak of eight consecutive top-10s came to an end. Dillon was involved in multiple accidents.

Soon after Busch crossed the finish line, Matt Crafton and Dillon crashed at the exit of Turn 4, leading to a post-race confrontation between the two drivers' crews.

"They were upset," said Crafton, who finished 10th. "I can understand why they'd be upset. The last thing I wanted to do was to wreck him."

Dillon, who finished 17th, was still upset minutes after the accident.

"Coming off the corner, he kept pushing me and pushing me. I couldn't save it," Dillon said. "There was no need to tear up a bunch of trucks like that."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.