Kyle Busch celebrated his eighth-career Xfinity Series victory at Bristol Motor Speedway after stealing the victory in the final lap to win Friday nights Food City 300.
Busch took the lead away from Chris Buescher on the opening lap of the three-lap green-white-checkered dash after Buescher stumbled on the restart, allowing Busch to power past on the inside and race away to his third Xfinity Series victory of the season.
Kyle Larson, who took the green flag for the final restart in fifth place, fought his way to a second-place finish after barely squeezing past Denny Hamlin on the outside coming out of the final turn, beating out Hamlin by inches. Ty Dillon edged out Daniel Suarez to take fourth.
Busch’s victory was the 73rd of his career and his eighth-career Bristol victory in the Xfinity Series, both tops among active drivers.
“It was a hard fought battle,” said Busch. “Our car wasn’t the best there early on in the race. Chris Gayle (crew chief) and these guys made some really good adjustments and they got it better for me.
“I was just hoping the 60 (Chris Buescher) would run out of gas and fortunately I guess that happened. Chris Buescher drove a great race – he was fast. This one here, I stole this one. We didn’t necessarily deserve it, but we got it.”
Since returning to the drivers seat after sitting out the first four months of the season after a crash in the season-opening Xfinity Series race at Daytona, Busch has been a man on a mission.
Needing to get into the top 30 in points in order to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Busch has racked up four Cup victories an moved up to 29th in points.
His record in the Xfinity Series has been just as impressive: in his five starts since returning to competition, Busch has yet to finish outside the top four, including wins at Michigan and Indianapolis.
“Obviously, I needed to make up my points deficit and everything and I needed to run real well and run strong – we’ve really been able to do that and we’ve capitalized on some good days,” said Busch. “We had some bad days, but we’ve definitely capitalized on some of those good days in winning four races. It’s just a matter now of hoping to continue this wave, this ride all the way through the next 13 weeks.”
Hamlin and Busch – fresh off their front-row sweep in Friday night’s Sprint Cup qualifying session – started the race 1-2 and duked it out for much of the first half of the race, trading the lead six times over the first 100 laps.
Buescher, who came into Friday night’s race with a 24-point lead over Dillon in the points standings, moved into the top spot following a round of pit stops on lap 195 and quickly found himself with the daunting task of trying to hold off Busch for the next 105 laps.
For the next 100 much of the remaining laps, Buescher weaved his way through lapped traffic in a desperate attempt to keep Busch off his bumper, keeping at least a half-straightaway lead unto the caution flew with four laps to go, setting up a green-white-checkered finish.
With the race going into overtime, fuel mileage became an issue as Buescher – who had last pitted on lap 54 – tried to stretch his fuel to the end.
On the final restart, Buescher engine sputtered as his fuel started to give out, stacking up the field behind him and allowing Busch and Hamlin to duck under back to the front of the field with Larson in tow.
Once out in front, Busch moved out to a four car-length lead and went unchallenged to the finish while Hamlin tried hang onto second.
Coming out of turn four on the final lap, Hamlin tried to slam the door on Larson as he looked to the outside, but Larson squeezed by and beat Hamlin to the stripe by less than two feet.
Brian Scott, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Regan Smith and Brendan Gaughan rounded out the top ten finishers.
Buescher, who managed to avoid being run over as half the field raced past him, sputtered his way to an 11th-place finish, and ended the night losing five points to Dillon in the series points lead.
“It’s unfortunate. I’m really upset,” said Buescher. “We just needed the track position. We were faster than a lot of guys we were racing around all day and once we got track position we showed we could run away from these guys. We had the speed, but it wasn’t meant to be. I’m glad we took the chance. I wouldn’t change it if we could do it over again, but unfortunately it knocked us right out of a top-10 and out of a win.”
Elliott pickup up two points on Buescher and now trails in third by 23 points. Regan Smith holds fourth in the points standings followed by Elliott Sadler in fifth.
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Bristol Motor Speedway – Bristol, TN
Food City 300 – Aug. 21, 2015
1. (2) Kyle Busch(i), Toyota, 302, $53821.
2. (7) Kyle Larson(i), Chevrolet, 302, $39921.
3. (1) Denny Hamlin(i), Toyota, 302, $40792.
4. (11) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 302, $34852.
5. (9) Daniel Suarez #, Toyota, 302, $34467.
6. (4) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, 302, $30854.
7. (10) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 302, $31485.
8. (3) Kevin Harvick(i), Chevrolet, 302, $24344.
9. (12) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 302, $30097.
10. (15) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 302, $30769.
11. (5) Chris Buescher, Ford, 302, $31717.
12. (14) Darrell Wallace, Jr. #, Ford, 302, $29516.
13. (13) Brandon Jones(i), Chevrolet, 302, $29416.
14. (27) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 302, $29350.
15. (16) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 302, $29904.
16. (19) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 302, $29269.
17. (21) Ross Chastain #, Chevrolet, 302, $29224.
18. (20) Cale Conley #, Toyota, 301, $29178.
19. (18) J.J. Yeley, Toyota, 299, $29143.
20. (32) David Starr, Toyota, 298, $29603.
21. (29) Blake Koch, Toyota, 298, $29037.
22. (6) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 297, $28987.
23. (24) John Wes Townley(i), Chevrolet, 297, $28926.
24. (22) Dakoda Armstrong, Ford, 297, $28865.
25. (17) Ryan Reed, Ford, 295, $28955.
26. (40) Brad Teague, Toyota, 291, $28739.
27. (33) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 289, $28678.
28. (37) Ryan Ellis(i), Chevrolet, 288, $28588.
29. (25) Hermie Sadler III, Toyota, 287, $28547.
30. (36) Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, 275, $22802.
31. (8) Elliott Sadler, Ford, Accident, 254, $28461.
32. (28) Dylan Kwasniewski, Chevrolet, Accident, 253, $28391.
33. (34) Eric McClure, Toyota, 252, $28366.
34. (23) Harrison Rhodes #, Chevrolet, Accident, 247, $28345.
35. (30) Mario Gosselin, Chevrolet, Handling, 180, $28318.
36. (38) Jordan Anderson(i), Dodge, 170, $20227.
37. (26) Benny Gordon, Toyota, Electrical, 65, $19227.
38. (39) Morgan Shepherd, Chevrolet, Brakes, 28, $18227.
39. (35) Carl Long, Dodge, Handling, 22, $17227.
40. (31) Jeff Green, Toyota, Vibration, 3, $16227.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 86.27 mph.
Time of Race: 01 Hrs, 51 Mins, 57 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.426 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 8 for 52 laps.
Lead Changes: 10 among 4 drivers.
Lap Leaders: D. Hamlin(i) 1-2; K. Busch(i) 3-12; D. Hamlin(i) 13-26; K. Busch(i) 27-54; D. Hamlin(i) 55; K. Busch(i) 56-104; D. Hamlin(i) 105-124; K. Harvick(i) 125; D. Hamlin(i) 126-194; C. Buescher 195-300; K. Busch(i) 301-302.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): D. Hamlin(i) 5 times for 106 laps; C. Buescher 1 time for 106 laps; K. Busch(i) 4 times for 89 laps; K. Harvick(i) 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 10 in Points: C. Buescher – 800; T. Dillon – 781; C. Elliott – 777; R. Smith – 749; E. Sadler – 718; D. Suarez # – 697; D. Wallace Jr. # – 697; B. Scott – 681; B. Gaughan – 676; R. Reed – 606.
