Kyle Busch, facing camera, gets a hug from brother Kurt Busch after winning Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tenn.BRISTOL, Tenn. - Kyle Busch was in the race Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway, so he won, of course.
Busch earned his third Cup Series win of the season, his eighth overall at Bristol and his 10th this year spanning all three of NASCAR's national series. He beat his older brother Kurt, who said if given the chance in Sunday's race, he would have wrecked his younger brother if it meant winning.
"He told me in victory lane," Kyle said, "and I told him 'You can't tell people you're going to wreck them before you do it, because when roles are reversed that person is going to wreck you because you already told them you were going to wreck them.' So I guess if I'm ever running second to Kurt, I'm going to wreck him. I'm glad it didn't turn out that way."
The Busch brothers lined up side by side on the final restart, but Kurt had nothing to slow Kyle's steamrolling of the competition this year in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota. They had inherited the lead as the first in line not to pit for tires during the 11th caution of the afternoon, and it set up a final shootout between Bristol's two winningest active drivers.
"He gave it one hell of a fight," Kyle said of Kurt. "Busch and Bristol, sounds familiar."
The 40-year-old Kurt is a six-time winner at the .533-mile high-banked oval and lamented the loss in his interview over the track's public address system. When he said he would have wrecked Kyle, seven years his junior, the crowd roared and affirmed Kurt's frustration with the final results. He has emerged as the top driver in what has been a winless Chevrolet camp this season, finishing 12th or better seven times so far in his debut year with Chip Ganassi Racing.
"That one is tough. I really wanted to beat him. I was going to wreck him," Kurt said. "Figure he could give a little love to his brother. I wanted that one bad. Feel like him right now - I'm all mad because I didn't win."
The wins go to Kyle Busch seemingly all the time this season, in anything he drives. Along with JGR teammate Denny Hamlin, they've given the organization five wins through the first eight races. If a JGR car doesn't win, then a Ford from Team Penske has, and that organization has the other three Cup Series victories this year.
The win was probably going to go to either Penske driver Brad Keselowski or Joey Logano until a late caution forced teams to choose. They could go in for tires or stay on track and try to maintain their position for the final 13 laps. The leaders - Logano and Keselowski - went to pit road, while Busch and his big brother moved to the front of the field.
"It was a no-brainer for us," said Adam Stevens, Kyle's crew chief. "We were just going to take our chances. I didn't think we would inherit the lead. That made it a little bit easier on us."
The pit strategy set up the storybook final ending to a weekend spent honoring Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip, the all-time winningest driver at Bristol with 12 victories. He used this venue to formally announce he'll retire as Fox Sports' lead analyst after 19 seasons, and his success at making the concrete jungle his playground was celebrated as Waltrip waved the green flag to start the race. Waltrip also was wired by the network to give his trademark "Boogity! Boogity! Boogity! Let's go racing, boys!" call from the flagstand.
But Waltrip, an unapologetic Kyle Busch fanatic, barely had time to catch his breath before an accident on the second lap brought action to a halt. Caught up in the commotion? Kyle, who had a damaged Toyota that sent him to pit road for repairs.
Joe Gibbs saw Busch spinning and thought, "Oh, my gosh, our day is going to end early."
"I think with Adam and Kyle, they have a way of fighting through adversity," Gibbs said. "Adam told Kyle right off the bat 'Hey, the car is not really hurt.' I think it probably took something away from the car, but they just did a great job fighting all day."
What was once Waltrip's domain now belongs to Kyle Busch, and not much can stop him these days, especially at Bristol.
So it was fitting, then, that he found himself out front in an entertaining, old-fashioned Bristol barnburner. The race had 11 cautions and 21 lead changes, and the 47 green-flag passes for the lead were the most since NASCAR began tracking that statistic in 2005.
The race also had a very familiar face in victory lane.
Kyle and his older brother have combined to win the past four Cup Series races at Bristol, and Kyle has 22 total wins at the track. Success is measured in the Cup Series, though, and Kyle Busch has trophies to collect to catch Waltrip.
"It ain't 12, that's for sure. So I got more to go," Kyle said. "We're getting there."
Kevin Harvick's car failed inspection three times before the start of the race to draw race-crippling penalties. NASCAR ejected his engineer from the event and forced Harvick to give up his 13th-place starting spot, drop to the back of the field and serve a pass-thru penalty at the start. It was certain to drop him several laps behind the leader immediately, but a caution on the second lap of the race as Harvick was on pit road mitigated the damage.
Harvick had a myriad of problems during the race and at one point dropped four laps behind the leader, but he had scrambled to the lead lap for the final restart and managed to finish 13th - exactly where he would have started if his car had not failed inspection.
Aric Almirola's race lasted just two laps before William Byron wiggled into him and sent the Stewart-Haas Racing driver's car into the wall. The damage ensured him a last-place finish after starting sixth.
Almirola chalked the incident up to second-year Cup Series driver Byron's inexperience and potential "panic" when cars began to pass him at the start of the race. Byron started second on the front row.
"He spun his tires on the start and he just lost it," Almirola said. "He got loose underneath me, lost it and ran right into the side of us and wrecked us. Part of that comes with experience, I guess."
Takuma Sato wins IndyCar race in Alabama
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Japanese driver Takuma Sato won the Grand Prix of Alabama for the fourth victory of his IndyCar career.
The 42-year-old Sato, the 2017 Indianapolis 500 winner, became the fifth driver to win after starting in pole position at Barber Motorsports Park, and he was in control most of the way. Scott Dixon earned his sixth runner-up finish in the race's 10-year history.
Sato had minor trouble late when he went into the grass and lost about a second off his lead at the road course, but he quickly gained it back over the final laps to win by 2.4 seconds. Dixon held off Sebastien Bourdais for second.
Sato reclaimed the top spot on lap 58 of the 90-lap race after coming out of pit road. It was the 11th lead change, a record for the race. Sato didn't give it up again despite his precarious moment when he managed to maneuver the No. 30 Honda through the grass and back onto the track.
The former Formula One racer became the first Japanese driver to win an IndyCar race in 2013 and the first to win the Indy 500 four years later, but he had never finished better than eighth at Barber.
Tennessee native Josef Newgarden, the series points leader, worked his way up to fourth after starting 16th. He had won three of the previous four editions of the Alabama event.