Kyle Busch dominated Wednesday night for his third consecutive truck win at Bristol Motor Speedway!

photo credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

The win didn’t come 1,2,3 easy for him. Busch had to start in the back of the field and gamble on fuel to collect the checkers.

“Unfortunately, we had a miscue with the engine (in qualifying),” Busch said. “We qualified on the pole but had to start at the back of the field and drive up through everybody and get up toward the front. We had the right pit strategy. Fortunately, Eric (Phillips, crew chief) made a nice call to pit when we did. We saved fuel for the rest of the day. I wasn’t 100 percent aggressive on saving fuel, but I was 92 percent and we were able to prevail and get up front. We led the most laps and ultimately got to victory lane. Being in victory lane at Bristol is pretty cool.”

Busch pitted just once on lap 30 and had no choice but to ride it out after a six truck accident pushed the race six laps into overtime.

“We didn’t make any adjustments all night,” Phillips said. “We pitted so early that we didn’t run enough green to make a good decision on what to do so we left it alone. We were a little free all night, but Kyle (Busch) did a great job. The guys did a good job and he saved gas. That was the biggest key.”

After working his way through the field, Busch took the lead on lap 91 and dominated the rest of the race.

“It worried me a little bit just having to start back there and try to come through traffic,” Busch said. “This is Bristol, anyway. It turned out everything was all right. We got up through there. We were passing guys one at a time, just kind of biding our time getting our way up there. I think we were as high as maybe 12th or 14th when we decided to pit on lap 30 or 31, whatever it was. It was a bummer deal that we didn’t get to start from the pole and kind of lead the laps and play our strategy out a little bit, but it was still cool coming from the back I guess. I wish there was an award for it or maybe a bonus for sitting on the pole, then starting in the back and coming up through there and winning. That’s just me.”

This is win #19 for Busch in the series and his third win of the season. Busch is running a partial schedule in the Camping World Truck Series this season.

Second in the standings, Aric Almirola finished second and gained 20 points in his championship hunt.

“Finally! We had a good truck tonight,” Almirola said. “I was down in the dumps all day because we didn’t have any speed. It just ran the same speed — it never went faster, it never went slower — it just ran the same speed no matter what we changed. It did the same thing again tonight when we took off for the race. We started 19th and we ran the same speed. Everybody seemed to fall back and come back to us. Then Richie (Waters, crew chief) made a great call there at the end of the race to come in and get four tires with about 50 laps to go and tires were really big. It seemed like a lot of people were getting really loose off. Great call by him to get our Graceway Pharmaceuticals truck back up front.”

The runner-up finish came just hours after it was announced that Almirola has signed a multi-year contract with JR Motorsports to drive the #88 Chevrolet in the Nationwide Series.

“The chance to drive full time in the Nationwide Series with a top caliber team is something I am extremely excited about,” Almirola said. “I was at the shop yesterday, and Kelley (Earnhardt, JR Motorsports General Manager) gathered all the employees around to announce our deal. The energy and excitement was addicting. We raced at ORP together a month ago and had a really good run.  There is no reason why we cannot compete like that every race, and there is no reason why we shouldn’t be running for a championship. I would expect nothing less.”

And what about the points leader? Todd Bodine finished 6th.

“I was pretty disheartened about how the truck was running in practice and really didn’t think we had a good truck and we didn’t,” Bodine said. “The Valvoline Toyota Tundra just was loose in, tight in the middle and tight off, loose off, loose in the middle, I mean I could never make it do the same thing twice. We kept fighting it and adjusting and fighting and adjusting and I ended up sixth. That’s what you have to do to win championships. I’ve said it all along. If you have a bad night, just finish in the top-10 and get the best finish you can. It’s not what we wanted for Valvoline or Toyota, but we only lost a few points to Aric (Almirola) and we will go get them at Chicago next. I love Chicago.”

Bodine now has a 211-point lead over 2nd place driver, Aric Almirola.

Ron Hornaday Jr finished third followed by Mike Skinner and rookie Justin Lofton rounded out the top-5.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here (nascar.com)

There were a record-setting 13 cautions for 71 laps and 4 lead changes among 4 drivers: K. Busch 0; E. Sadler 1-17; T. Peters 18-37; M. Skinner 38-90; K. Busch 91-206

Busch is one of three drivers pulling “triple duty” at Bristol Motor Speedway this week. Elliott Sadler and Brad Keselowski are the other two.

Sadler, driving for Kevin Harvick Inc, lead the first 17 laps and raced in the front much of the night. While battling for second with truck regular Timothy Peters late in the race, contact between the brought out the third to last caution on lap 165. Soon after, Sadler blew a tire and hit the wall ending his night on lap 190. Sadler finished 26th.

Keselowski stayed out of the typical Bristol trouble and went home 7th.

Next:
Aug. 27th -- EnjoyIllinois.com 225 at Chicagoland Speedway