BRISTOL, Tenn. — Cody Coughlin topped the chart in first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The driver of the No. 13 ThorSport Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 14.828 and a speed of 129.404 mph. Kyle Busch was second in his No. 46 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota was second with a time of 14.832 and a speed of 129.369 mph. Johnny Sauter was third in his No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet with a time of 14.863 and a speed of 129.099 mph. Matt Crafton was fourth in his No. 88 ThorSport Toyota with a time of 15.006 and a speed of 127.869 mph. Austin Cindric rounded out the top-five in his No. 19 Brad Keselowski Racing Ford with a time of 15.039 and a speed of 127.622 mph.
John Hunter Nemechek, Brandon Jones, Justin Haley, Noah Gragson and Ryan Truex rounded out the top-10.
Grant Enfinger, who clocked in the 11th-fastest single lap, posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 125.682 mph.
Since the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Iowa Speedway back in June when Johnny Sauter finished second, the GMS Racing driver has been up and down in the past four races. At Kentucky Speedway, he finished ninth, while he finished 23rd at Eldora Speedway. He had a solid run at Pocono Raceway where he finished fifth. However, Sauter’s points lead started to slip after Eldora. He eventually lost the lead at the Pocono race weekend due to Christopher Bell winning the race and taking the points lead. Bell is currently the leader by 37.
Sauter had a disappointing recent outing at Michigan International Speedway, where he finished 18th due to a flat tire late in the going and was unable to make up any of the ground. But if he wants to turn his season around, Bristol Motor Speedway just might be the place on Wednesday night. Sauter made his Bristol Truck Series debut back in 2003 driving for Christopher Beckington, where he started 23rd and finished 25th.
Sauter has competed at Bristol in the Truck Series full time at Bristol since 2009. Including that start in 2003, he has four top fives and five top 10 finishes, with a best finish of second coming in 2011. Since 2013, Sauter upped his game as his finishes came inside the top 10. He’s looking to notch that elusive win at Bristol and take back the point lead.
“Bristol (Motor Speedway) is one of those tracks that I look forward to every year,” Sauter said. “I’ve never won there but that style of driving and the work that goes into these short track races is what I love. There’s always racing going on no matter where you’re running in the field and it really is a driver’s track. You can be completely comfortable with your truck and how it gets through the corners but if you aren’t completely focused on your job as a driver, on making passes and avoiding mistakes then you can get caught up in something really quick.”
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Grant Enfinger’s first full season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series has him just on the outside, vying for a playoff spot, with three races remaining in the 2017 regular season.
Ask him how he’d rate his season, he’d say, “it depends on where in the season you ask me.”
“If you’re asking me right now, probably a C,” he said. “We’ve been an A at certain parts of the season, and we’ve been an F at certain parts of the season.”
His season started with him pushing teammate Ben Rhodes with two laps to go in the NextEra Energy Resource 250 at Daytona International Speedway. Exiting Turn 2, Rhodes got loose, turned down into teammate Matt Crafton and triggered a 12-truck wreck. Enfinger wound up 16th.
He rebounded the following week with an eighth-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway but was a non-factor in a 17th-place finish at Martinsville Speedway.
After an 11th place at Kansas Speedway, Enfinger went on a run of five top-10 finishes and four top-fives. That run consisted of a seventh at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a bottom-step podium finish at Dover International Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway, a fifth at Gateway Motorsports Park and a fourth at Iowa Speedway.
“We got through the first three or four races and weren’t where we really wanted to be, and then we started to gain a lot of momentum, and had some really good finishes and had some really good trucks,” he continued.
This five-race hot streak came to an end when he collided with teammate Rhodes, only half a lap into the second stage of the Buckle Up In Your Truck 225 at Kentucky Speedway.
Enfinger bounced back with a fourth-place finish at Eldora Speedway, bringing him to his highest points position of the season to date.
After finishes of 13th at Pocono Raceway and eighth at Michigan International Speedway, he now sits seventh in points, 14 back of teammate Rhodes, who currently occupies the final playoff spot.
Doing so won’t be easy, given that, as he notes, his team is without the consistency that carried them for the aforementioned five-race stretch.
“In the last couple of races, we’ve struggled,” Enfinger added. “We just haven’t had the finishes we’ve needed, but we’re looking to get back on track here at Bristol.”
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for a rare mid-week event. It will be the 14th race of the 2017 season with three races remaining before the playoffs begin. For some drivers, Bristol could be the place to score their first win of the season, but there could also be a repeat 2017 winner. Let’s take a look at who could tame the “Fastest Half Mile” on the Truck Series circuit.
In the past five races, there have been five different winners, with the winner coming from the lowest starting position, 13th, which came from Ben Kennedy in last year’s race.
Currently, there are 34 Trucks on the preliminary entry list.
1. Kyle Busch – Busch will be competing in his sixth race of the season. Bristol has been a strong suit for the younger Busch brother. In the last five races, Busch has one win that came in 2013, two top fives and two top 10 finishes. Busch will look to add another win at Bristol. Also to note, Bristol was the home of his sweep that came in 2010.
2. Christopher Bell – Bell looks to continue his summer hot streak as he heads to Bristol for the second time in his career. In his only start, he finished seventh in last year’s race. Even though he has four wins this and the points lead, that won’t stop him going for his fifth win of the year and his first at Bristol.
3. John Hunter Nemechek – Nemechek is looking to rebound after a disappointing outing at Michigan. In three races at Bristol, he has finished eighth, third and sixth, respectively. If Nemechek wants to rebound and get his season back on track, Bristol could be the place.
4. Matt Crafton – Crafton finished sixth this past weekend at Michigan but is hungry for another win this season. In the last five races, Crafton has an average finish of 12.4 but has one top five and four top 10 finishes. Bristol might be the site of his second win of the season.
5. Brandon Jones – Jones could be a spoiler and wild card Wednesday night at Bristol. In his only start that came in 2016, he finished ninth. In 2017 on the Truck Series side, Jones has given the No. 99 team, two top fives and three top 10 finishes. This might be a momentum booster for Jones as he’s been struggling on the XFINITY Series side.
The winners of the last five races have come from inside the top 10, with the exception of the 2016 race where Ben Kennedy won from the 13th starting position. Qualifying will be an important factor if the drivers want a shot at the win.
There will be two practices on Wednesday with the first one at 9 a.m. ET and the final at 11 a.m. ET, both on FS1.
Qualifying is set for 4:35 p.m. ET on FS2 and race coverage will begin at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1 and MRN Radio.
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Darrell Wallace Jr. took the lead prior to the end of the first segment and didn’t relinquish it again on his way to winning the RustyWallace.com 100 Super Late Model feature of the Short Track U.S. Nationals at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Travis Braden led the field to the green flag at 7:27 p.m. The lead went from him, to Chandler Smith and then to Darrell Wallace Jr., who took it from Smith exiting Turn 2 on lap 32 and held it through the end of the first segment on lap 51.
Nobody had anything for him in the final 49-lap segment as he drove into victory lane at Thunder Valley.
“I should start running these more often,” Wallace said. “This is a cool event put on by everyone at Bristol, Jerry (Caldwell) and his whole staff here. Just a really fun couple of weeks. Got to come up here and test last week and I think I was still catching my breath coming into this weekend. So these things are just so fast around here. We were just on a rail tonight. So that’s just hats off to everyone at Fathead Racing and JBL Racing.”
Jake Crum finishes second and Smith rounds out the podium.
Stephen Nasse and Stephen Wallace round out the top-five.
Garrett Jones, Cole Rouse, Tyler Ankrum, Chase Purdy and Kyle Plott round out the top-10.
In the Pro Late Model 100, Cole Williams outlasted a wreck-fest of a race to win.
“Man this is freaking awesome,” Williams exclaimed with joy. “This is definitely our biggest win for our career. These boys worked their butts off all weekend long and I knew that if we kept this nose clean, we’d have a shot at it. Of course we had to have flawless restarts, and we ended up having them.”
The most significant wreck was a nine-car wreck on just the second lap of the race in Turns 1 and 2.
The second major incident occurred on lap 46 when Eddie Fatscher dumped race leader Dillon Oliver going into Turn 1, who’s car got loose, then veered up into the outside wall and then hit inside pit road wall head-on. Oliver walked over to Fatscher’s pit stall, where a member of Fatscher’s team punched him in the face.
Myatt Snider closed out the evening winning the Late Model Stock 100 feature.
“It’s awesome,” Snider said of his victory. “I feel like we’ve been close to a CARS Tours win for the longest time now. Ever since we’ve started running this, we’ve been competitive. It’s been a tough road. We’ve had a lot problems, freak accidents. Stuff that just gets in the way. What better place for it to come at than Bristol.”
BRISTOL, Tenn. — One term I’ve heard used by those attending the Short Track Nationals at Bristol Motor Speedway this past weekend has been “Corporate NASCAR,” meaning NASCAR’s desires to grow the sport has made it lose touch with the interests and desires of its core fans. After watching yet another lackluster All-Star Race that was overhyped by both NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway, I believe there’s truth to that “Corporate NASCAR” label.
I’ve spent the entire weekend at Thunder Valley milling about the garage “tents” of the late model and street stock classes as they prepared to race on the high banks of the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.” The differences between the atmosphere of these lower level short track racing series and a typical NASCAR weekend are astronomical, even on a typical Bristol weekend.
Race action during a Super Late Model feature race for the Short Track U.S. Nationals at Bristol Motor Speedway. Photo: Tucker White/SpeedwayMedia.com
The atmosphere at Bristol this weekend has been far more relaxed and fan-friendly, allowing fans to be up close and mingle with drivers who actually were inside the track more often than not. On a typical NASCAR weekend, you’re lucky if your driver spends more than a few minutes outside of his/her motor coach prior to a practice/qualifying session or race. All the late model and street stock teams worked out of a tent where fans could walk by and chat with team members as they please. In the NASCAR world, I see teams rope off their war wagons, telling the public to piss off. Fans were able to stand near the wall inside the track, provided they didn’t do anything reckless. On a NASCAR weekend, you need to be a photographer or hard-carded to be near the walls when cars are on track.
Finally, the drivers meeting this weekend at the Short Track Nationals was actually a meeting where they went over race procedure and emphasized the different layout for Bristol (the turns were on the opposite sides of a NASCAR race and the front and backstretch were flipped). It was also open to anyone who purchased a pit pass for the day or weekend and was held out in the open.
The drivers meeting’s in NASCAR are a joke. It’s an overblown spectacle, and I’m using that term incredibly loosely, held in a secluded location that’s not open to the public, usually inside the track where a hot pass at minimum is needed to even get near, much less attend. And even a hot pass won’t always get you into the meeting, even if you’re media. What goes on when the meeting actually starts? It’s about eight to 10 minutes of naming off dignitaries and then two to three minutes at most dedicated to actually talking about race procedure.
That 24-word sentence that ended the previous paragraph is every drivers meeting ever. Once in a while, you’ll get a driver or crew chief to actually raise their hands when a series director asks everyone if there are any questions, but that’s usually a result of a fustercluck XFINITY/Truck Series race the day prior and/or NASCAR making a bizarre penalty call in a race the day prior.
But I’m not here to dwell on the atmosphere of the Short Track Nationals. I presented it to show the dichotomy between local level short track racing and NASCAR.
Now let’s discuss last night’s snoozer of a race that was the Monster Energy All-Star Race.
First off, take a look at the “over the top” infield logo for this year’s race. It’s so bland and generic for a race that’s emphasizes “no points, just old fashioned, run for the money,” high energy racing. This looks like a freaking teaser logo that’s used to keep people in the dark about what’s really coming.
But if you think the race logo is phoned in, feast your eyes on the infield logo, via this Tweet from Jim Utter of Motorsport.com.
Charlotte Motor Speedway couldn’t even take the time to paint that generic race logo on the grass? They just painted Monster Energy on the grass.
I know I’m nitpicking here, but I must if this is not to be repeated.
CONCORD, N.C. – MAY 20: Monster Energy performers entertain the crowd prior to the start of the Monster Energy NASCAR All Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 20, 2017 in Concord, North Carolina. Photo: Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images
Let’s now turn to the new sponsor of the Cup Series, Monster Energy.
Their idea of brining people to the track is MMA fights and motorcycle shows in a giant steel hamster ball that I’ve seen done with more at stake at a state carnival.
Now I understand perfectly that entertainment is not experienced in a vacuum and everyone has different tastes. But how is anything Monster Energy is doing leading to attracting a new crowd? Attendance at most tracks is still shaky and ratings are still plummeting, so it’s not working right now.
To make a long story short, everything Monster Energy is doing is all flash with no substance.
And now we come to the race itself.
It was yet another snooze-fest of a mile and a half race that had nothing of substance to it. Kyle Larson led from start to finish in the first two segments and Jimmie Johnson led all but two laps in the third segment before winning it.
On the final restart, Kyle Busch dove under Brad Keselowski only a few hundred yards past the start/finish line to take the lead and drove on to victory.
Clean air was key to victory.
We’ve seen this year after year where the driver who gets out front in the final segment is the driver who wins the race more often than not, last year being the exception where Joey Logano passed Larson in the closing laps of the final stage.
Yet for whatever reason, NASCAR continues to run this race at Charlotte, rather than moving it to a short track where aerodynamics aren’t so critical.
Year after year, the aero push effect has gotten worse at the intermediate tracks, especially at Charlotte, but NASCAR, International Speedway Corporation and Speedway Motorsports Inc. aren’t moving away from these types of tracks. Instead, they’ve gone to more of them. Hell, next season, we’re taking a race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and moving it to the intermediate track of Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
To put it simply, the biggest problem with NASCAR today is the disconnect between those in charge of the sport and those who sit in the seats, and it was on display at Charlotte more than any race this season. The disconnect encompasses everything I’ve mentioned in this piece and explains why people who take part in local level racing have such a negative opinion of NASCAR today.
Now I understand that a sport the size of NASCAR has many masters to serve. They have to please the drivers, teams, tracks, media and fans at the same time, and the interests of one entity listed isn’t always shared with another. In that respect, I understand NASCAR can’t please everybody. The best they can do is do what pleases the largest number of people and apologize to those it shafts in doing so.
But the most important entity of the bunch is the fans. If people aren’t buying tickets and/or watching the race on TV, the sport grinds to a halt.
Bottom line, take care of your customers and they’ll take care of you. And last night’s All-Star Race shows NASCAR still has work to do.
I’ve had three days to process the events of Thunder Valley this past Monday and I must ask if the race was honestly as great as everyone is saying.
I sat in the press box in the middle of Turns 3 and 4 to watch the race for about 350 laps. I went down to the infield media center to watch 75 laps, taking about five minutes to get down there from the press box and 20 to 25 laps clicking off in the process, and I watched the final 50 laps outside the deadline room and photographed the cars circling around the .533-mile concrete oval while listening to the radio broadcast of the race.
Everyone around me was saying, “What an awesome race that was!” I, however, was just thinking, “That was just average for Bristol.”
The biggest problem I saw was it was extraordinarily hard to pass a car, especially the leader, on the bottom lane. When a car would catch the leader, the leader would simply jump to the top line in the turns and pull away.
That’s not just me looking too deeply into something either. Kyle Larson admitted after the race Monday that running the bottom wasn’t advantageous.
“It’s hard to keep your momentum up on the bottom, and the bottom seems to be faster here for 20 or 25 laps, and then once you get ‑‑ it seems like 3 and 4 slows down quicker around the bottom,” Larson said. “It slows down quicker than it does in 1 and 2 so you can pop up and run the top there. Yeah, it’s just all about timing that right. In that second stage Joey (Logano) was really close behind me, and I actually beat him to the top of 3 and 4 and started pulling away a little bit and he moved up there, and then the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) was really good around the bottom. It’s just an awesome racetrack. We have options to move around and makes the racing really competitive and exciting.”
In other words, that VHT substance that was supposed to fix the problem of cars running single-file against the wall didn’t really fix the problem.
I wouldn’t be so hard on this if three weeks earlier I hadn’t covered arguably the best race ever at Martinsville Speedway. Now I know that race also made the outside lane work, but you needed a really strong car to make the outside work and the inside was still far superior.
It worked at Martinsville because of the mix of strategies and the inside being superior. At Bristol Motor Speedway, seeing so many strong cars race different lines and not lose momentum is like watching dirt racing, which I consider overrated.
What made Bristol great was the single-groove racing that forced drivers to put the chrome bumper to the driver in front or out-brake them going into the corners. That’s not possible with progressive banking. The only way we return to the “Bristol of old” is to do away with the progressive banking.
Plus, I’m not a big fan of gimmicks designed solely to “enhance” the racing. Restoring non-variable, 36 degree banking — and yes, I know that figure was also disputed by a number of individuals over the years — back to the high banks of Bristol is a more natural remedy to what Marcus Smith and Jerry Caldwell are trying to accomplish with the VHT.
Jimmy Johnson took the lead from Kevin Harvick with 21 laps to go to capture his second win of the season and the 82nd of his career on Monday at Bristol Motor Speedway. Johnson led 81 laps en route to his second win at Bristol in 31 starts.
“I’m so happy to give everybody at A.O. Smith a good ride on the quarter panel this weekend. We wouldn’t be here without a ton of support from Valvoline, Gatorade, the fans, Lowe’s, and Chevrolet. This track has been difficult over the years and we really hit on something Saturday afternoon in that last practice session around the bottom and honestly, it’s what I’ve been looking for here for 16 years and we finally figured it out. So, I’m very, very happy.”
Not Surprising
Kyle Larson started from the pole by virtue of being atop the point standings after qualifying was rained out on Friday. Larson had the dominant car at the beginning of the race and won Stage 1. Larson still leads the series points standings by 27 over Chase Elliott.
“I don’t know if we had the car to beat. I thought early on in the race before all the rubber got laid down we were really good. In the middle part of the race, I didn’t think we were very good. And then there at the end, I got the top going really good.”
Surprising
Clint bowyer finished second and captured Ford’s best finish of the day.
“These guys have worked so hard; it’s a fun group, everybody at Haas. My teammates are awesome. It’s so much fun to work with this group each and every week. Hell yeah, you want to be up there and win it. But the day we had, I got caught speeding on pit road and had to bounce back. The guys kept working on the car. I appreciate the opportunity that Gene Haas and Tony Stewart gave me. Mobil 1, Haas Automation and everyone that’s a part of it.”
Not Surprising
Martin Truex Jr. fought back to finish eighth after a speeding penalty. Truex was running second when he came down pit road for the final time on Lap 462 of 500. NASCAR said he was speeding on pit road and that sent him back to 16th place.
“This is the best run we’ve had here in a long time. It’s bittersweet, I wish we could have seen if we could have beat the 48 (Jimmie Johnson). We were close there before that last caution, but it is what it is and you try to get what you can get and sometimes you cross the line and today we crossed the line. All in all, it was an awesome day and a lot of fun.”
Surprising
Joey Logano’s consistency continues as he captured the fifth top-five and seventh top-10 in the first eight races of the season. Logano moves into the fourth position in the series point standings.
“We have another top five, I think that’s four straight. We got some good stage points which we haven’t done all year. I just want to win when we come to this race track.”
Not Surprising
Harvick led once for 14 laps and finished third. This was his best finish of the season and his second straight top-four finish.
“I thought our Jimmy Johns Ford was the fastest car, we just needed track position. I think we showed how fast it was there on no tires and kind of able to hold our own. You just never know where you’re going to come out on those restarts. I felt like we had a couple cautions and we were in control of the race with the 11 on two tires and we might have had a chance. A good weekend and we’ll just keep going.”
Surprising
Dale Earnhardt Jr. starting smoking during a restart and then went into the outside wall.
“I don’t know we broke something in the oil system under caution. The guys said there was some oil in the pit stall after our pit stop. I noticed when I was getting lined up double file for the restart the car was smoking. I just thought maybe we had a tire rub for some reason, but I couldn’t remember what might have caused that. And went into Turn 1 on the restart and the car went straight into the wall with oil all over the tires.”
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Richmond International Raceway on Sunday, April 30.
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Martin Truex Jr. rallied to an eighth-place finish after being busted for speeding with less than 40 laps remaining in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
A two-car wreck brought out the final caution with 37 laps to go. Kevin Harvick opted not to pit and assumed the lead. Truex exited pit road first and would’ve restarted second, but was penalized for short-cutting the radius of Turns 3 and 4 on the apron, which NASCAR rules as speeding per their time over distance formula, and restarted from the tail-end of the field on the ensuing restart.
In the final 32 laps, he worked his way up to eighth in the running order and settled for eighth in the final finishing order.
“We were going for it, I wish we could have had a shot there just to see if we could have won,” said Truex.
“This is the best run we’ve had here in a long time. It’s bittersweet, I wish we could have seen if we could have beat the 48 (Jimmie Johnson). We were close there before that last caution, but it is what it is and you try to get what you can get and sometimes you cross the line and today we crossed the line. All in all, it was an awesome day and a lot of fun.”
He was helped by the fact that only 16 cars were on the lead lap for the final restart.
It was a black mark on an otherwise excellent day for the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. He led 116 laps, second to Kyle Larson for most in the race, finished second to Larson in the first stage and won the second stage.
He leaves Bristol third in points, trailing Larson by 37 points, but maintains a three-point advantage over him in playoff point accumulation.
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Jimmie Johnson passed Kevin Harvick with 21 laps to go and drove on to win the day-late Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Harvick opted not to pit under the final caution of the race with 40 to go and assumed the race lead. Johnson lined up second after Martin Truex Jr., who beat him off pit road, was busted for speeding and sent to the tail-end of the field.
On the final restart with 32 to go, Harvick got off to a flying start and held off Johnson for a time. But his old tires were no match for Johnson’s four fresh tires and he lost to Johnson with 21 to go.
“Yeah, it was kind of interesting because when the No. 42 (Kyle Larson) was there, it just created an environment to run the top and I wasn’t as good on the top,” Johnson said. “The No. 42, not being up there and that first couple of cars; the bottom was really where it was at for the short run. This Lowe’s Chevrolet was flying!
“This track has been difficult over the years and we really hit on something Saturday afternoon in that last practice session around the bottom and honestly, it’s what I’ve been looking for here for 16 years and we finally figured it out. So, I’m very, very happy.”
It’s Johnson’s 82nd career victory in 551 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts.
Harvick’s teammate Clint Bowyer came home second and Harvick rounded out the podium in third.
“We’ve come a long way with this team,” Bowyer said putting it into “perspective,” as he stated. “These guys have worked so hard; it’s a fun group, everybody at Haas. My teammates are awesome. It’s so much fun to work with this group each and every week. Hell yeah, you want to be up there and win it. But the day we had, I got caught speeding on pit road and had to bounce back. The guys kept working on the car. I appreciate the opportunity that Gene Haas and Tony Stewart gave me. Mobil 1, Haas Automation and everyone that’s a part of it.”
Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano rounded out the top-five.
Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr., Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-10.
“I’m a little disappointed, but not bad. I’m more disappointed in myself from getting that speeding penalty with 80 (laps) or so to go,” Larson said. “I was just pushing it down pit road and pushed it a little too far. I had a shot there still at the end, but four tires were better than ours.”
Larson led the field to the green flag at 1:11 p.m. He led the first stage from start to finish and got the playoff point for winning it.
He dominated most of the second stage but lost the lead when Truex passed him in Turn 2 on lap 202 and Truex won the second stage.
After losing the lead to Landon Cassill during the caution break, he took it back with ease on the ensuing restart. But on the lap 329 restart, Logano took the lead after Truex chose to restart on the bottom.
Jimmie Johnson made contact with Logano as he took the lead with 106 to go.
During the eighth caution, Hamlin opted not to pit and took the lead. Restarting with 73 to go, he held off Johnson for six laps before Johnson took it.
A two-car wreck with 40 to go set up the run to the finish.
Kurt Busch brought out the first caution on lap 54 when he bounced off Trevor Bayne exiting Turn 4, slid down the track and hit the inside wall. Chris Buescher slammed into the back of Reed Sorenson trying to slow down in an attempt to miss Busch.
Kyle Busch brought out the third caution on lap 210 when he suffered a right-front tire blowout and slammed the wall in Turn 2.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. brought out the third caution on the lap 217 restart when a right-front tire cut led to him slamming the wall in Turn 1 and rupturing an oil cooler line.
On lap 323, David Ragan attempted to thread the needle between teammate Cassill and Danica Patrick exiting Turn 2. Patrick bumped into him, sending him into Cassill and sent him spinning into the outside wall in Turn 3.
Kyle Busch suffered a second right-front tire blowout and slammed the Turn 3 wall with 116 to go, bringing out the sixth caution.
Erik Jones made contact with Gray Gaulding, cut down his right-front tire and slammed the wall in Turn 3. AJ Allmendinger clipped the left-rear corner of Jones’s car.
The final caution flew when Kasey Kahne hit the wall in Turn 3 and was rear-ended by Paul Menard with 40 to go.
The race lasted three hours, four minutes and 29 seconds at an average speed of 86.674 mph. There were 14 lead changes among seven different drivers and nine cautions for 76 laps.
Larson leaves Bristol with a 27-point lead over Elliott.
