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NASCAR: Kyle Busch speeds to victory at Bristol

By Amanda Vincent, The Sports Xchange
Kyle Busch celebrates after winning the pole for the 2017 Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis last month. Photo by Edwin Locke/UPI
Kyle Busch celebrates after winning the pole for the 2017 Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis last month. Photo by Edwin Locke/UPI | License Photo

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Kyle Busch claimed his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of 2017 on Saturday night at the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

It was Busch's sixth career win at Bristol and completed a sweep of the three NASCAR national-level races at Bristol between Wednesday and Saturday.

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Erik Jones finished second, 1.4 seconds behind Busch, after leading 260 laps. Busch led 156.

Toyota claimed the top-four positions in the finishing order with Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth taking third and fourth, respectively. Kyle Busch's brother, Kurt Busch, rounded out the top five.

Busch took his final lead of the race from Jones with just over 50 laps remaining. Jones and Kenseth swapped second back and forth for much of the remaining 50 laps before Hamlin got by Kenseth for third.

Kyle Busch and Kenseth were the winners of the first two stages.

When a yellow flag waved late in the second 125-lap stage, Kenseth was among six drivers who stayed out, and as a result, inherited the lead for a restart with six laps remaining in the stage.

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Busch was first off pit road but restarted seventh. He lost a position to eighth by the end of the stage.

Jones started the race from the pole, his first career series pole. Kyle Larson took the lead on lap 51 and Busch, after starting 18th, got to the front to take the lead from Larson on lap 118.

Busch and Larson battled back and forth for the lead in the closing laps of the opening stage, with Busch taking the lead on the last lap of the stage. Jones also got by Larson on lap 125 to take second in stage one.

NOTES: Kurt Busch made his 600th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start. ... Kyle Busch dominated and won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race Wednesday night and the NASCAR Xfinity Series race Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. Busch swept all three races, including the Cup race, at Bristol in 2010. ... The PJ1 traction compound was applied to the lower groove of the racing surface for the third consecutive NASCAR weekend at Bristol. ... Jimmie Johnson won the most recent race at Bristol in April. Kevin Harvick is the defending winner of the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race. ... Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch are the winningest active drivers at Bristol, each with five victories at the track. ... Cole Whitt crew chief Frankie Kerr suffered a broken right scapula and a severely bruised sternum and ribs when the race car fell on him at the track Friday, but he remained at Bristol for Saturday night's race. ... Kasey Kahne qualified third but had to drop to the back for the start of the race because of a tire change.

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