NASCAR Sprint Cup: Kyle Busch Sweeps Bristol...Again!

Racin’ with Russ—For the second consecutive race weekend, Kyle Busch swept everything run at the track except the track blower races at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Back in the Fall, Busch nailed down all three of NASCAR’s top division races, those being the Camping World trucks, followed by the Friday Nationwide race, and finally won the Sprint Cup race on Saturday night to mark the first time in NASCAR history anyone won all three big shows in the same weekend.

We move ahead to this past weekend where Kyle had a fairly easy time winning the Nationwide race on Saturday afternoon, then backed it up on Sunday afternoon to hold off the likes of five-time champion Jimmie Johnson and pole-sitter Carl Edwards.

The Sprint Cup race started with Edwards on the pole, his second of this season, and did manage to lead some of the opening laps, staying among the top 10 most of the day.

Johnson wound up leading the most laps on the day with Kyle leading the final laps, barely able to hold off a very strong Edwards who pulled alongside several times, but could not make the move stick. He mentioned in his post-race interviews, he touched him once, but not hard enough, as he still owes him one from Phoenix. Having Edwards lay a fender or more on Busch to move him out of the way would have made this relatively ho-hum race much more interesting and no one would have faulted him for doing so.

Busch winds up with his 20^th career Cup win; followed by Edwards, Johnson, Matt Kenseth, and fellow Ford driver Paul Menard wrapping up the top five finishers.

The latest results finds Kurt Busch at the top of the charts followed very closely (one point) by Edwards with teammates Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman just 12 markers back of the top spot.

Notes: Several drivers continue on a downward spiral with disappointing results. Those include Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer, Trevor Bayne, Jamie McMurray, Joey Logano, and Denny Hamlin. They all finished way down the charts for various reasons, mostly accidents and/or mechanical issues.

—The races at Bristol have dwindled in excitement and crowd size as evident by the tens of thousands of empty seats on both days of racing. There are many reasons for this starting with the state of the economy which is still not good. Having to buy seats for hundreds of dollars for a family of four plus transportation and lodging gets to be pretty pricey especially if one of more family members are still out of work or their salary has been cut like so many have.

The changes to the racetrack several years ago with progressive banking has resulted in more side-by-side racing and less routing and gouging the other guy out of the way.

Translated…less wrecks and less excitement for the fans.

Nationwide—Ricky Stenhouse Jr. started on the pole and led a few dozen laps in the Nationwide race before Kyle Busch took over and dominated the racing by leading nearly all of the 300 laps and racking up his 45^th Nationwide win.

This was certainly not one of your typical Nationwide barn burner races and Busch took off for the checkered flag with only Kasey Kahne mounting any kind of challenge very late in the event.

The final rundown included Kahne as second with Dale Earnhardt Jr, Elliott Sadler, and Joey Logano capping the top five.

Danica Patrick crashed out of this one after bouncing off Ryan Truex late in the race and rearranging both ends of the car. She had been running a few laps down in the teens at the time, yet finished 33^rd on the day.

The current points leader is Jason Leffler for the first time in his career, but only by two points over Stenhouse Jr.

Note: Some people like to see their favorite Sprint Cup drivers compete among the Nationwide regulars. I do not. Yes, NASCAR finally restricted drivers from gaining points or a title by choosing what series they are competing for points in, but I am more than tired of seeing seven or more of the top 10 finishers in a Nationwide race taking all of the glory and most of the money week in and week out.

Do I see an end to this?

Not as long as the promoters can line their pockets with extra ticket money from race fans willing to pay for that Nationwide ticket, as well as the Sprint Cup ticket.

What do you think? Drop me a line.

From Rumorville—At this writing, Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne will not compete in the upcoming All-Star race due to lack of sponsorship. If he does not, it will mark the first time a 500 winner does not compete in the event. Got an extra hundred grand laying around? Give the Wood Brothers a call.

That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will review the action from the wide open Auto Club Speedway in California, opening rounds of Indy car and F-1 racing along with more racing news from around the globe.

Questions? Comments? Contact Russ at [e-mail]