The biggest story of last weekend’s trip to Bristol, of course, was Kyle Busch’s dominance across each NASCAR series. But Rowdy’s mastery of “The Last Great Colosseum” wasn’t the only story of the weekend.
Thumbs Up: Rowdy’s weekend sweep
Well, it’s only reasonable and obvious we give a thumbs-up to Busch for sweeping the weekend — a victory Wednesday night in the Camping World Truck Series, a win Friday in the XFINITY Series, and a third checkered flag Saturday night in the Monster Energy Series.
Such a sweep has only been done once before — also by Rowdy — at Bristol in 2010.
Fellow drivers and legends were just as impressed with such a feat, which earns this week’s first thumbs up.
Love him or hate him I feel he is the most all around talented driver I will ever witness in my lifetime. Congratulations @KyleBusch 🐐
– Kyle Larson (@KyleLarsonRacin) August 20, 2017
I’ve seen them all, you can take my word for it, @KyleBusch is “The King of Bristol” to do what he did this weekend is enormous!! Congrats!
– Darrell Waltrip (@AllWaltrip) August 20, 2017
Thumbs Down: Mistakes near the playoffs
With the end of the regular season approaching, winless Chase Elliott needs to be careful. If he wants to race into the playoffs based on points — which seems like a tall order based on the number of different winners this season — he must be careful and have clean races.
Unfortunately for the driver of the No. 24, he tangled with Kevin Harvick in the final stage Saturday night.
WATCH: Chase Elliott takes a hit at Bristol
Thumbs down for making us nervous — finishing 18th with no wins and the playoffs two races away.
Thumbs Up: Being a very good young man
That Erik Jones fellow seems like a very good young man. I wish you’d hang out with him more.
Not only did Jones earn his first career pole, he also led more than half the race at Bristol. That young whippersnapper nearly broke his mentor’s, Busch, perfect weekend sweep. What a nice young man.
WATCH: Kyle Busch impressed with Erik Jones at Bristol
Thumbs up to young Jones, who scored a career-best finish and made a name for himself as a serious contender. Give that spry fellow some hard candies.
Thumbs Down: Entering to the wrong introduction song
Imagine walking up to driver introductions for your first Bristol night race — only to have the wrong song play while you walked across the stage.
That was reality for Corey LaJoie when Matt DiBenedetto’s song was mistakenly played instead of his own. When LaJoie introduced himself, he set the record straight that the “X Gon’ Give it to Ya” playing in the background was not his choice of song.
The biggest question is which song will go down in history as LaJoie’s introduction song for this race — DiBenedetto’s choice, or LaJoie’s actual selection of “Lights Come On” by Jason Aldean?
Thumbs down for this minor goof-up that could have thrown off somebody’s mojo — but didn’t, apparently, at least for LaJoie, who brought his BK Racing Toyota home for a respectable 28th-place finish.
Hard fought p28 last night. After 1000 corners @BMSupdates, this morning I feel like I spent the my evening wrestling a dang grizzly bear.
– Corey LaJoie (@CoreyLaJoie) August 20, 2017
Biggest Thumbs Up of the Week: A broom at the ready
Yeah, Busch swept the three races this weekend. That’s really impressive, considering it’s only ever been done by Kyle Busch.
But I’ve got some questions.
Busch celebrated his third of three victories by sweeping with an actual broom after taking the checkered flag. Where did the broom come from? Whose idea was it to equip a broom for this very specific use? A weekend sweep of three races has only happened once in NASCAR history previously, so it’s a pretty rare circumstance where a broom would prove necessary.
In any event, the broom was put to good use. Major thumbs up to the individual who thought, “Y’know what? We should probably pack a broom this weekend, just in case.”