Busch Completes Bristol Sweep with Saturday Night Victory

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Kyle Busch won the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race on Saturday evening from the Bristol Motor Speedway.

Busch ran up front for most of the night, but he had to hold off rookie Erik Jones over the final 50 laps to get to victory lane.  Busch said he was happy with how Jones raced him in the closing laps.

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“Erik Jones put up a whale of a fight,” Busch said.  “I was running him with my tongue hanging out and my arms were like Jell-O…that was all I had.”

“Can’t say enough about the young man…I have a lot of respect for him.  He raced me awesome out there like a great teammate and gave me the room when necessary and raced me hard when necessary.  It’s great to have a guy like that.”

With the victory on Saturday, Busch completed the weekend sweep following victories in Wednesday’s Truck Series race and Friday’s Xfinity Series race.  Busch said this victory was harder than the other two, but that his team was able to persevere to get to victory lane.

“That one was a lot harder,” Busch said.  “Car might not be perfect, but I’m never perfect; I never feel like we’re perfect.”

“Every single pit stop we kept working on it and kept adjusting on it.  This car was fast.”

Jones finished second for his best-career finish, but he still sits on the outside of NASCAR’s playoff picture.  Jones said his team did everything well on Saturday, but that it wasn’t enough to get them a playoff-clinching victory.

“It’s been a great weekend for us, you can’t take that away,” Jones said.  “You still wish you could have had that little bit more and grabbed the win.  Just didn’t have quite enough.”

“We’ll just have to keep after it…we’re going to keep fighting and keeping after these wins.”

Unofficial results:

1. Kyle Busch

2. Erik Jones

3. Denny Hamlin

4. Matt Kenseth

5. Kurt Busch

6. Ryan Newman

7. Trevor Bayne

8. Kevin Harvick

9. Kyle Larson

10. Ryan Blaney

11. Jimmie Johnson

12. Jamie McMurray

13. Joey Logano

14. Ricky Stenhouse

15. Daniel Suarez

16. Paul Menard

17. David Ragan

18. Chase Elliott

19. Clint Bowyer

20. Michael McDowell

21. Martin Truex Jr.

22. AJ Allmendinger

23. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

24. Kasey Kahne

25. Danica Patrick

26. Matt DiBenedetto

27. Chris Buescher

28. Corey LaJoie

29. Brad Keselowski

30. JJ Yeley

31. Gray Gaulding

32. BJ McLeod

33. Cole Whitt

34. Joey Gase

35. Landon Cassill

36. Ty Dillon

37. Aric Almirola

38. Reed Sorenson

39. Austin Dillon

40. Jeffrey Earnhardt

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