Bristol: Busch bashes to maiden win

Busch made his race-winning move by hitting Spencer on lap 445 of the 500 lap race.

"Kurt Busch smashed right into me," said Spencer, who finished second. "That's OK. I never forget. The only thing is, when I smash back, he won't finish."

Busch, 23, claimed Spencer had done something similar to him at Phoenix last year, taking him out of a top 10 finish: "He dumped us flat when he was a lapped car and we were racing in eighth place. That was in my mind."

Spencer replied: "I have no clue what he's talking about. I look at it as when you start racing for victories, top-fives, you'd better respect your competitors because it'll come back to haunt you pretty quick."

Busch ran the last 157 laps on his final set of tyres, faking leader Dale Earnhardt Jr into the pits under caution on Lap 407. Elliott Sadler took advantage of Goodyear's indestructible Bristol set to win here a year ago, skipping his last two stops.

Earnhardt Jr was best for most of the day, leading 181 laps, including the 60 or so leading to the caution on 409. Busch, running second when Steve Park spun out the lap before, had no intention of pitting.

"We saw Elliott Sadler win the race here with 160 to go last spring," Busch said. "It just worked into our favour that we were up front. We knew we were going to stay out from 150 [to go] on."

Earnhardt said that, faked or not by Busch, he needed tyres with 100 to go. "We didn't feel like the car was as good as it had been earlier," he said. "We didn't believe it was fast enough to win if we didn't stop.""

Spencer stayed out behind Busch, and he eased his Dodge inside Kurt's Ford on Lap 444, after Busch slipped high in Turn 4. Busch then pressured Jimmy from the outside down the back side and through Turns 3 and 4.

"Coming down the front stretch, he was going in [Turn 1] low, and I knew he was going to have a hard-time making that corner," said Busch. "I gave him a little tap just to let him know we were going to race him. He ended up sliding up the hill, and we got back by him. That's part of racing at Bristol."

Ricky Rudd (Ford) was third, ahead of the recovering Earnhardt, who was blocked by the lapped Robby Gordon in the latter stages of the race.

For full race results, click here.