RELATED: Saturday’s race results | Watch the dramatic finish
BRISTOL, Tenn. – Kyle Busch said it would happen eventually, and eventually arrived Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion likely didn’t expect it to happen like this.
Busch had won four NASCAR XFINITY Series races this season, and Sprint Cup Series regulars had gone six-for-six entering the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol.
But after Busch and fellow Sprint Cup regular Kyle Larson chased one another lap after lap after lap around the high-banked half-mile track, it was series regular Erik Jones who collected the win and a $100,000 bonus from the series sponsor in its Dash 4 Cash program.
Busch had said earlier this season after a typically strong performance there was no doubt teammates Jones and Daniel Suarez would eventually make their way into Victory Lane. Jones had two series wins (earned in 2015) before Saturday; Suarez is looking his first series victory. Both finish consistently in the top five.
The issue for Busch at Bristol was the late restart, a three-lap dash after Ryan Reed and Mario Gosselin brought out the yellow on Lap 189 of 200.
Larson chalked up the loss to the restart as well, but blamed himself.
The Reed/Gosselin incident bled nine laps off the board and set up the three-lap dash. Not that more laps under green would have mattered, according to Busch, who led three times for 43 laps.
“Both restarts I had today were absolutely horrendous; both times I would go to the throttle and the engine would shut off and those guys were gone,” he said. “… I couldn’t keep a nose on their left-rear fender or anything.
“More laps obviously would have been better … but being on that inside lane is already a disadvantage.”
And that doesn’t bode well for Sunday’s Food City 500 Sprint Cup Series race (1 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), he said.
“It used to be a race track that you could race around three-wide and pass and work traffic really well and have some fun,” Busch said. “Now it’s just frustrating and aggravating.
“It will be the top lane tomorrow. … The race will be around the top and it will be the same frustrating single-file show tomorrow.”
Larson restarted for the final time in the outside lane, Busch on the inside. Jones, fourth on the restart, shot in front of Busch when the No. 18 Toyota stumbled, then raced side-by-side with Larson for the lead as they came to the white flag.
“Just did a really poor job the last couple of laps,” Larson said, “really disappointed in myself and probably not going to forget about this one for quite a while.”