Busch Snaps Winless Streak with Bristol Victory

Originally written for CLNS Media.

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

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Busch snapped a 58-race winless streak with the victory and locked himself into the Playoffs.

After taking the lead away from his teammate Clint Bowyer on a late restart, Busch held off Kyle Larson over the final run to pick up his sixth victory at Bristol.

Busch said he was excited to win on a night when the cars were hard to handle.

“This one’s one of the sweetest because you have to work the hardest right now,” Busch said.  “The cars are right there on edge and you’ve got to work every single lap.”

Busch was one of many drivers that had damage from an accident on the third lap, but he said the damage to his car wasn’t as bad as some others.

“All this damage, and I was like, ‘it’s not that bad, we’re going to be okay,’” Busch said.  “Just so proud of the team effort.”

Larson finished second after starting on the pole and struggling with his car’s handling through the night. 

Larson said his finish was better than what they should have had.

“Our Chevy wasn’t very good from lap 1 to 500, but we got a second place finish out of it,” Larson said.  “We were probably a 12th to 15th place car.”

“I think if I had a better car, tires probably would have showed what they’re really capable of.  Just a really frustrating day.”

Unofficial results:

1. Kurt Busch

2. Kyle Larson

3. Chase Elliott

4. Joey Logano

5. Erik Jones

6. Clint Bowyer

7. Ryan Blaney

8. Alex Bowman

9. Jimmie Johnson

10. Kevin Harvick

11. Trevor Bayne

12. Ryan Newman

13. Austin Dillon

14. Denny Hamlin

15. Kasey Kahne

16. Brad Keselowski

17. David Ragan

18. Daniel Suarez

19. Chris Buescher

20. Kyle Busch

21. Ty Dillon

22. Matt DiBenedetto

23. William Byron

24. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

25. Landon Cassill

26. Ross Chastain

27. Blake Jones

28. Timmy Hill

29. Jamie McMurray

30. Martin Truex Jr.

31. Aric Almirola

32. JJ Yeley

33. Reed Sorenson

34. Corey LaJoie

35. Jesse Little

36. Paul Menard

37. Michael McDowell

38. Darrell Wallace Jr.

39. AJ Allmendinger

40. Gray Gaulding

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Harvick Cruises to Victory in Michigan

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Kevin Harvick won the Consumers Energy 400 from Michigan International Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

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Harvick dominated on Sunday, and earned his seventh victory after leading 108 laps.  After winning both stages, Harvick pulled away from Austin Dillon over the final 60-lap run to get to victory lane.

Harvick said he and his team were only focused on winning this weekend.

“The most important thing is winning races right now,” Harvick said.  “That’s what we’ve been trying to do all year is win races…and get all the points you can get to position yourself well to get to Homestead.”

“We don’t want to learn anything, we don’t want to try anything different; we want to go out and we want to win.”

Dillon was running second with two laps to go, but he dropped to fourth after suffering a tire issue coming to the white flag.

Dillon said he was disappointed that he wasn’t able to fight Harvick for the win.

“We were in a position where, if something happened to [Harvick], we could win the race,” Dillon said.  “I came down the straightaway and it was just shaking like either the tire was unravelling or a loose wheel.”

“Didn’t want to lose this great finish.  We have this capability when we put our best days together, and we’ve got to keep doing it…this year being in the playoffs.”

Unofficial results:

1. Kevin Harvick

2. Brad Keselowski

3. Kyle Busch

4. Austin Dillon

5. Ryan Blaney

6. Kurt Busch

7. Aric Almirola

8. Denny Hamlin

9. Chase Elliott

10. Joey Logano

11. Daniel Suarez

12. Clint Bowyer

13. Erik Jones

14. Martin Truex Jr.

15. Ryan Newman

16. Paul Menard

17. Kyle Larson

18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

19. Alex Bowman

20. Chris Buescher

21. Jamie McMurray

22. AJ Allmendinger

23. Darrell Wallace Jr.

24. Matt DiBenedetto

25. Michael McDowell

26. Kasey Kahne

27. David Ragan

28. Jimmie Johnson

29. Landon Cassill

30. Blake Jones

31. BJ McLeod

32. Garrett Smithley

33. Gray Gaulding

34. Trevor Bayne

35. Ross Chastain

36. William Byron

37. Timmy Hill

38. Ty Dillon

39. Jeffrey Earnhardt

40. Corey LaJoie

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Chase Elliott Finally Finds Victory Lane at Watkins Glen

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Chase Elliott won the GoBowling.com at the Glen from Watkins Glen International on Sunday afternoon for his first career victory.

After qualifying third for Sunday’s race, Elliott ran up front throughout the day.  After challenging throughout the first stage, Elliott took the lead from Kyle Busch at the beginning of stage 2. 

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After a pit miscue sent Busch to the back before the final run, Elliott had to hold off Martin Truex Jr. throughout the final 30 laps. 

Elliott said he almost gave the win away on the final lap when his car wheel-hopped going into Turn 1.

“I started wheel-hopping and I had two options: either knock it out of gear or spin out…I chose to knock it out of gear,” Elliott said.  “Luckily I had a big enough gap at the time where Martin wasn’t next to me.  I thought if I could just be in front of him before the esses, typically you can gap a guy through there.”

After finishing second eight times throughout his first 98 career Cup Series races, Elliott was finally able to get to victory lane in his 99th career race. 

Elliott said he was relieved to finally get the first victory out of the way.

“So thrilled, so emotional, so much relief,” Elliott said.  “Working on three years and we haven’t won one.  I had the opportunity today and we were able to get it done.”

“I had a good group around me to keep pushing me and keep making me realize we weren’t in those positions by accident.  Just wanted to make sure if we were in a position to capitalize, and we did it.”

Truex finished second after running out of fuel on the final lap, and said that he believed his car was faster than Elliott’s over the final run.

“I could catch him, but just when I’d get close, I’d get loose and fall back,” Truex said.  “He put his car exactly where I needed to be and I couldn’t get him.  I gave it everything I had every single lap.”

“We ran out of gas on the last lap, so I guess it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.”

Unofficial results:

1. Chase Elliott

2. Martin Truex Jr.

3. Kyle Busch

4. Daniel Suarez

5. Erik Jones

6. Kyle Larson

7. Jamie McMurray

8. William Byron

9. Kurt Busch

10. Kevin Harvick

11. Clint Bowyer

12. Ryan Blaney

13. Denny Hamlin

14. Alex Bowman

15. AJ Allmendinger

16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

17. Brad Keselowski

18. Michael McDowell

19. Ryan Newman

20. Chris Buescher

21. Kasey Kahne

22. Aric Almirola

23. Ty Dillon

24. Parker Kligerman

25. Darrell Wallace Jr.

26. David Ragan

27. Austin Dillon

28. Paul Menard

29. Matt Kenseth

30. Jimmie Johnson

31. Landon Cassill

32. Ross Chastain

33. Matt DiBenedetto

34. Cole Whitt

35. Spencer Gallagher

36. Josh Bilicki

37. Joey Logano

Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images