Aug
22
Written by:
The Commish
8/22/2010 2:24 PM
Wednesday night Kyle Busch won the Bristol Camping World Truck Series race from the back. But that wasn't really a surprise or big deal. It was his 19th win in 77 starts in the trucks series, with the three from this year coming from behind the wheel of his own team Toyota's.
The big deal was how the win gave him the chance to sweep all three series races in one weekend, a feat he'd tried four times before, the goal more than a few NASCAR superstars have attempted to reach over the years, all without success.
Friday night's Nationwide Series race saw another win and a little bit of controversy from his tapping Brad Keselowski into the wall in a retalitory move after getting bumped the same way while both were fighting for lead. Well, the same except for the into the wall part. Jason Leffler, Elliott Sadler, Dale Jr. and Carl Edwards filled out the top five followed by Trevor Bayne, Clint Bowyer, Reed Sorenson, Parker Klingerman and Joe Logano. Paul Mendard was 13th in front of Brad K. with Danny O'Quinn, an under-rated racer who was the Busch Series Rookie of the Year for Roush Fenway in 2006, getting the last FMFL points driving the #27 Ford for Baker Curb Racing. Justin Allgair was 33rd, Ryan Newman 35th and Kasey Kahne 37th.
Saturday night's Cup race was Kyle's from start to finish. He started 19th, went to the front about as quickly as you can at the famous Tennessee bullring, led the most laps and was miraculously able to avoid the typical Bristol carnage. Second through 10th were David Reutimann, Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, Juan Pablo, the Biff, Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth. Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Dale Jr., Kevin Harvick, Reed Sorenson and Jeff Burton filled out the FMFL top 16.
Top picks Tony Stewart (lap leader, contenda, 27th place) and Jimmie Johnson (polesitter, early leader, 35th place) looked to be big Super 7 Sweep points earners until each crashed. Bummer. I hate zeros.
So Kyle Busch became the first and only NASCAR driver to go 3-for-3 over one weekend of racing. He accomplished a feat that had eluded all others since 1995, when the original Craftsman Truck Series was added to NASCAR's growing-by-leaps-and-bounds Busch and Winton Cup schedule. That feat, instead of smashing a guitar and/or other behavioral faux paus is what he will be most recognized for from now on; or at least until he wins five Cup championships in a row.
Well done, Shrub.
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