Monday marked the fifth time in his Cup Series career that Busch has won consecutive Cup Series races. Busch also broke a tie with NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott for 16th on the all-time series wins list.
“I was breathing hard there those last 20 laps or whatever it was,” said Busch in victory lane. “That was a heck of a run right there with the 42 (Larson) – chasing him down, being able to get to him, being able to get by him and then trying to hold him off with some traffic ahead of us. Man that was fun.
“I can’t say enough about this Skittles Toyota Camry. (Crew chief) Adam Stevens and my guys continue to impress, do an amazing job for me and give me great race cars week in and week out. We knew we were going to have a great long run car. We just had to get there and had to get some long runs. Larson was better than us right there before that last caution came out, so I don’t know what happened to ours, but we just got really, really bad tire vibrations and just weren’t able to run as hard as we wanted until that final stint there … but we came in, got four tires on it and chased those guys back down.”
With his second-straight win, Busch assumes command of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular-season point standings by 59 markers over Joey Logano.
Busch’s seventh Bristol Cup Series victory also extends his record as the .533-mile concrete oval’s active wins leader. He now has 21 NASCAR national series wins combined at the Tennessee track.
Larson led a race-high 200 laps, first taking command at the start of the second stage on Sunday and leading by as much as seven seconds before the postponement of the conclusion to Monday afternoon.
Even on Monday, Larson’s No. 42 McDonald’s Chevrolet appeared to be the class of the field, opening up a margin of more than five seconds at times during the second half of the event. Unfortunately, his car simply wasn’t strong enough when it mattered most.
“I was really, really good on that long run, but as soon as we restarted on that final run, I was just extremely loose,” Larson noted. “The (No.) 17 (Stenhouse) got to my inside and I just really didn’t have any grip after that. I thought it would tighten up for me and I would be able to get going, but it never really did and I was just really loose.
“I hate that I didn’t win. It’s another one at Bristol (that got away),” added Larson, who has led 200 laps or more in each of the last two Bristol spring races. “I feel like every time I race here I almost get a win, and then I just can’t close the deal. It was a fun race, but I’ve been beat by Kyle (Busch) about every time I’ve raced here too … so that gets frustrating after a while.”
Busch and Larson have finished first and second four times at Bristol, three times in the Xfinity Series and Monday in the Cup Series. Busch won in all four of those instances.
Jimmie Johnson crossed the line third for his first top-five since Dover Int’l Speedway last October. Stenhouse faded to fourth in the final laps and Alex Bowman finished fifth, his best Cup Series result.
Aric Almirola, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman completed the top 10.
Darrell Wallace Jr. ended the day 16th, one lap down, but led his first six laps in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series after passing Keselowski for the top spot with 126 to go.
