Busch wins bruising Bristol race
Kurt Busch completed a family double by winning the Food City 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway, a day after his younger brother Kyle Busch took victory in the corresponding Busch Series event
Having come a close second to Kyle on Saturday, Kevin Harvick had to accept a runner-up spot behind the other Busch sibling in the main race.
The deciding laps proved controversial. Matt Kenseth had controlled the latter part of the race, but was struggling to put a lap on Dale Jarrett.
This allowed a train of cars to build up on Kenseth's tail, and with four laps to go Busch decided he had waited long enough and barged past the leader.
Kenseth was punted into a slide and lost several positions. While trying to recover, he tapped Jeff Gordon into a spin on the final lap.
The unimpressed Gordon made his feelings plain to Kenseth after the chequered flag. Kenseth apologised, but was more concerned about Jarrett and his former team-mate Busch's driving.
"I felt like Dale Jarrett could have moved out of the way," said Kenseth. "I sure would've moved out of his way and I felt like he cost me the race. I just couldn't get turned in behind him.
"Kurt did whatever he thought he had to do. Whatever he feels good about tonight... I wouldn't have done that to him.
"He just knocked me out of the way. Anyone can do that."
"We were just as good as he was, and he started to slip up a little bit there at the end," Busch responded.
"Matt's a great friend of mine and we were great team-mates, but maybe I was a bit rough."
Champion Tony Stewart dominated early 245 of the 500 laps, but he faded to 12th, in the second half of this rather episodic race, which was punctuated by 18 caution periods, plus a red flag to clear up fluids spilt in a multi-car crash.
Food City 500 results:
Pos Driver Make Laps 1. Kurt Busch Dodge 500 2. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 500 3. Matt Kenseth Ford 500 4. Carl Edwards Ford 500 5. Bobby Labonte Dodge 500 6. Mark Martin Ford 500 7. Greg Biffle Ford 500 8. Kyle Busch Chevrolet 500 9. Ryan Newman Dodge 500 10. Kasey Kahne Dodge 500 11. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 500 12. Tony Stewart Chevrolet 500 13. Elliott Sadler Ford 500 14. Denny Hamlin Chevrolet 500 15. Jeff Green Chevrolet 500 16. Jeremy Mayfield Dodge 500 17. Sterling Marlin Chevrolet 500 18. Kyle Petty Dodge 500 19. Scott Wimmer Chevrolet 500 20. Dale Jarrett Ford 500 21. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 500 22. Reed Sorenson Dodge 499 23. Dave Blaney Dodge 499 24. Ken Schrader Ford 499 25. Casey Mears Dodge 498 26. Robby Gordon Chevrolet 497 27. Terry Labonte Chevrolet 497 28. Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 495 29. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 495 30. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 487 31. Kevin Lepage Ford 485 32. Michael Waltrip Dodge 481 33. J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 469 34. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 467 35. Jamie McMurray Ford 440 36. David Stremme Dodge 435 37. Brian Vickers Chevrolet 434 38. Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet 430 39. Stanton Barrett Chevrolet 381 40. Travis Kvapil Chevrolet 349 41. Scott Riggs Dodge 344 42. Brent Sherman Dodge 302 43. Hermie Sadler Chevrolet 96
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