Candyman Kyle Busch Snags Easter Victory on Bristol Dirt
Getting to Lap 250 was no picnic, but in the end it was worth the wait.
After two rain delays and 14 caution flags, the Bristol night race on dirt provided the finish that everyone was looking for. Well, everyone not named Tyler Reddick. The final restart ironically played out in typical Feature Race fashion; a 25-lap sprint to the finish line. It was a duel between race leader Reddick, and Chase Briscoe.
Briscoe was reeling in Reddick in the closing laps, and the Stewart Haas Racing driver got to his bumper on the final lap. The ace dirt driver made a dive bomb to the inside of Reddick's No. 8 Chevrolet, only to make contact that sent both drivers spinning towards the inside of the track. That opened the door for Kyle Busch.
As Reddick got back onto the track, Busch slipped by him right before the finish line and collected his first win of the season. It was a fortuitous spot for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who led just one lap on his way to his 60th career Cup victory.
"We got one," Busch exclaimed. "Doesn’t matter how you get them. It’s all about getting them. This is awesome. It’s just a testament to our team, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota, and it being fast. Fast enough to stay in contention, fast enough to see those guys. I don’t know why we couldn’t fire off after it rained. It just would not fire. Took it about 20 laps to get going. Overall, just really pumped to be back. Real pumped to get a win. This one means a lot. I can win on any surface here at Bristol. Bring it on, baby."
Tonight's victory ended a 25-race winless streak for Busch, who now has nine Cup wins at the .533-mile track. Busch also tied seven-time Cup champion Richard Petty’s streak of 18 consecutive seasons with at least one race win.
It was a tough blow for Reddick, who received an in-person apology from Briscoe on pit lane after the race. The Richard Childress Racing driver led a race-high 99 laps but was ultimately denied his first career Cup victory. This is the fourth runner-up finish in the Cup series for Reddick.
“I don’t think I did everything right, to be honest with you,” Reddick said. “Briscoe was able to run me back down there. I should have done a little bit better job. I shouldn’t have let him get that close. He ran me back down. Worked really hard to do that. Racing on dirt, going for the move on the final corner. It’s everything that, as a driver, you hope to battle for in this situation. It does suck, but we were able to finish second still. I’m being honest. I should have done a better job and pulled away so he wasn’t in range to try to make that move. That’s how I look at it.”
Briscoe rebounded nicely from a flat tire early in the race and led 59 laps on Sunday, but ended up finishing 22nd after the incident on the final lap. “I was running Tyler down and tried throwing a slider and didn’t expect him to drive in there on me, and I got loose,” Briscoe said. “I was spinning either way. I feel terrible. I didn’t want to wreck him. That was my fault 100 percent. I hate it for Tyler. He’s a good friend of mine.”
Defending Bristol Dirt Race winner Joey Logano ended up finishing 3rd tonight, with dirt legend Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney rounding out the top five. Alex Bowman had a wild evening but managed to finish 6th while Christopher Bell finished 7th after starting on the front row. Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell, and Ty Dillon rounded out the top ten.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr had a promising run going until an incident on Lap 163 with several other drivers. Kurt Busch was collected when Austin Dillon's car became a sitting duck, and Ross Chastain had an engine issue that ended his night early. Denny Hamlin had a blown engine earlier in the night and finished 35th. Kevin Harvick finished one spot ahead of him after he was caught up in a crash on Lap 99 of the race.
Harvick, who is on a 52-race winless streak, had some interesting comments about the race after his exit. "The first thing I can tell you is we did a terrible job prepping the track," the former champion said. "It was full of mud and there was nobody here to pack the track, so we all look like a bunch of bozos coming in to pit because we don’t know how to prep the track."
"The racetrack was fine. They just did a terrible job to start with. They’ve done this before, but obviously, it doesn’t look like it. I think Bristol is a great racetrack but it must not have been what everybody liked. I think it’s ridiculous that we’re doing what we’re doing anyway," Harvick said. He was not the only one that would like to see this event fall off the 2023 schedule.
It was a wild finish, but the racing was not for everyone. While the series has been open and willing to change things up, this event hasn’t exactly been a home run with fans, teams, and drivers across the board. With this race officially in the rearview mirror, it is time for something entirely different next weekend.
After three consecutive short-ovals and a dirt night race, the series shifts to the biggest and fastest track on the schedule. Coverage for Sunday's GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway begins at 3 PM ET on FOX.
