Kyle Busch made history Saturday night after winning under the lights at Bristol Motor Speedway! Busch became the first driver to sweep all three of NASCAR’s top national series race events in one weekend.

photo credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images

“To be the first in NASCAR history to win three races in a weekend is awesome,” Busch said. “I have been trying to do this my whole career, and it came true today. This is history and I am real proud to make it.”

It was Busch’s fifth attempt to pull the perfect trifecta. Busch won the Nationwide Series race the night before and the Camping World Truck Series race Wednesday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“It’s pretty cool because when you come so close and then don’t get it, it’s pretty frustrating,” Busch said. “I mean, last year we won the truck race and were leading the Nationwide race and we got crashed out, and then we ended up winning the Cup race, so this is probably a year delayed.”

After starting 19th, Busch worked his way to the front and took the lead from Jimmie Johnson on lap 172. He led four times for a race-high 282 laps. As the laps wound down, Busch had to hold off David Reutimann and Jamie McMurray to secure his lead.

This is Busch’s third win of the season and 19th career victory. It’s his fourth win at Bristol Motor Speedway. Busch moved up five spots in the standings and now sits third. He’ll clinch his spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup if he finishes 40th or better after the next race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“He’s pretty good, you know, at what he does,” Joe Gibbs Racing Team President J.D. Gibbs said. “I think this weekend, that probably was appropriate, doing what he did, the first time; the truck thing, gets a little harder Nationwide and a little harder for the Cup thing, and to do all three of those back-to-back was a big deal. I think that’s one of those things that will go down in the record books, and years from now I’ll be able to say, hey, I remember when, and that was a lot of fun for us.”

“Kyle is a special driver and in my opinion the most talented driver on the circuit,” said Dave Rogers, Busch’s crew chief. “I told him before the race, there’s a lot of fans out there booing him and some wise guys saying some things that were somewhat unprofessional, but it’s an absolute honor to work with Kyle Busch. I couldn’t be happier to do so.”

And what does Kyle have to say about the NASCAR fans in the grandstands that boo him?

“I feel like I just come out here to do my job,” Busch explained. “I do what I’m supposed to do, and to win races is my job and what that entails. And secondly, it’s to make J.D. happy and Dave and the sponsors and those guys happy. And then thirdly, it’s to try to sell souvenirs. The fans are what drives this sport and what makes us go round and get us here every week. So it’s cool to have them here, and they’re passionate about who they like and who they don’t like. I feel like to me I’ve been in this position since the upstart of my career, since I was 16, and it hasn’t changed, and I don’t foresee it changing any time soon. We’ve asked this question about 50 million times and I’ll probably get it 25 million more times. You know, you just deal with it, man. You just go out there and do what you can.”

David Reutimann scored a runner-up finish despite having suffered from food poisoning over the weekend.

“It was a good race,” Reutimann said. “I enjoyed racing the guys up front, Jamie and Kyle and those guys.  You know, it’s just a…. I feel really, really good about the finish, but I’m not feeling so hot right now, so I’m ready to go to sleep at some point.”

Jamie McMurray finished third.

“We had an issue on pit road with a lug nut and had to go to the tail end, but fortunately it happened early enough in the race that we were able to recover from that,” McMurray said. “You know, we had that long 130-lap run and just had a really fast car throughout that, was able to drive up to the lead.  And then we put our last set of tires on.  The tires just felt flat in the front and I couldn’t get my car to roll through the center as quick as it had earlier in the night.  It wasn’t way off, but it was off just enough that I couldn’t compete with the 18 (Kyle Busch) there.”

Clint Bowyer finished fourth followed by Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, Juan Pablo Montoya, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth completed the top-10.

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

After starting from the pole, Jimmie Johnson led 175 of the first 200 laps, but tangled with Juan Pablo Montoya and hit the wall on lap 263. The #48 team worked quickly on getting Johnson back out on the track, but finished 35th. Johnson dropped four spots in the standings to 9th.

“I thought I left him (Montoya) enough room, but I got hooked with the fence and around I went,” Johnson said. “I don’t think it was intentional.”

There were 7 caution flags for 39 laps: Laps: 58-61 (#38 Accident Turn 3); 127-131 (#6, 14, 34, 43, 78 Accident Turn 1); 136-140 (#78 Accident Turn 2); 194-199 (#82 Accident Backstretch); 254-261 (#09 Accident Turn 2); 263-268 (#42, 48 Accident Backstretch); 410-414 (Debris Backstretch).

There were 15 lead changes among 9 drivers: J. Johnson 1-61; T. Stewart 62; J. Johnson 63-128; T. Kvapil 129; J. Johnson 130-171; Kyle Busch 172-194; J. Johnson 195-199; Kyle Busch 200-254; J. Johnson 255; Kyle Busch 256-388; J. McMurray 389-399; C. Bowyer 400; J. Gordon 401-402; M. Martin 403; D. Reutimann 404-428; Kyle Busch 429-500.

Just two races remain until the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup begins. Kevin Harvick continues to the lead the standings by 279 points over 2nd place driver, Jeff Gordon. Harvick has already locked himself into the Chase to compete for the championship.

Top 12 Driver Standings (After Bristol)

1.   Kevin Harvick, 3521
2.   Jeff Gordon, -279
3.   Kyle Busch, up five spots, -351
4.   Carl Edwards, up two spots, -408
5.   Denny Hamlin, down two spots, -413
6.   Tony Stewart, down two spots, -414
7.   Jeff Burton, -420
8.   Matt Kenseth, up one spot, -426
9.   Jimmie Johnson, down 4 spots, -444
10.  Kurt Busch, -448
11.  Greg Biffle, -466
12.  Clint Bowyer, -601

Next:
Sunday, Sept. 5th -- EMORY HEALTHCARE 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway