"Old guys rule!" - Kurt Busch

Kurt Busch reminds NASCAR's young guns the old guard isn't ready move out of the way by winning the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol

Kurt Busch stole the headlines from younger brother Kyle for the first time this year by winning the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway Saturday night. The victory - his first since the 2017 Daytona 500 - snapped a 58 race winless streak and guarantees him a spot in The Chase For The Cup, which begins in Las Vegas next month. Busch now has six career wins at Bristol, second only to his brother Kyle among active drivers.

"It’s awesome to do it at Bristol," said Busch. "I love this place. We now have won six times here and I have great teams that have always helped me win. This group of guys, Billy Scott, my crew chief, this is his first win and to be able to do it with Ford and Monster and Haas Automation is just what it’s all about is executing as a team and we had good restarts when we had to, and then you’ve got to get clever and start throwing everything at it."

Kyle Busch was nearly the story of the night. The pre-race favorite triggered a 15 car accident just two laps into the race and quickly fell two laps down from the leader. Kyle made a furious charge from the rear of the field to battle Martin Truex Jr. for second place with less than 70 laps remaining when he bumped the back of Truex's car, forcing Truex to crash out in 30th place.

"That was just a misjudgment on my behalf. I crashed the 78 (of Truex),” said Busch. "That was my bad, totally. Totally misjudged that one just coming off the corner. Knowing there were still plenty of laps left, I wasn’t even in a hurry. I just misjudged it by four or six inches, whatever it was, clipped him and sent him for a ride. He knows that wasn’t intentional at all, and we’ve worked really, really, really, really good together these last two, three years, so that shouldn’t ruin anything between us."

Kyle Busch continued to run in the top-five until Lap 481 when he made contact with Chris Buescher and suffered a cut tire which left him finishing in 20th place.

"That was just me and this team and never giving up and being able to drive up through the field like that," Busch said. "This M&M’s Camry was fast, even torn up and wrecked and everything else, it was fast. We had a shot to win the race there, just got to racing with guys three-wide and couldn’t get clear of them."

As Kyle Busch's chances of winning evaporated, his brother Kurt seized control of the race. Kurt Busch sped past Clint Bowyer to assume the lead after a re-start on Lap 478. After another re-start on Lap 488, caused by his brother's final accident of the night, Kurt fended off Kyle Larson to hold on to the lead for the final 12 laps despite Larson having fresher tires and garnered the checkered flag. Larson settled for a runner-up finish, his fifth of the season without a victory to his credit.

"I think if I had a better car, tires probably would have showed what they are really capable of," said Larson. "This was just a really frustrating day. Our DC Solar Chevy was not very good from Lap 1 to Lap 500 there, but we fought and got a second-place finish out of it. So, I was happy about running second, but just disappointed because I had a lot of confidence going into this race and thought our car was really good."

Kurt Busch's win is his 30th career Cup Series victory and it made history. Kurt and Kyle Busch are the only pair of brothers in NASCAR history to each achieve thirty wins in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

"It's all about winning," Busch said. "I wasn't worried about not making the playoffs, so we could kind of treat these races coming up as free-for-alls, and we're just going to keep going after it."

Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Erik Jones round out the top-five. With only two races remaining before The Chase For The Cup begins, playoff spots are beginning to be locked up. Nine drivers have claimed a spot by virtue of winning a race. After Saturday night’s race at Bristol Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski have scored enough points to clinch a playoff berth without a victory. Only four spots are up for grabs over the next two races.

Ryan Blaney was the winner of Stage One while Joey Logano took the checkered green for Stage Two. Both drivers earned a bonus point for the playoffs.

Click here for full race results.

Kyle Busch is still the leader in the NASCAR drivers points standings, but second place holder Kevin Harvick was able to cut his deficit behind Busch to only 41 points. With only two races remaining in the regular season Harvick is the only driver who can still mathematically knock Busch out of the top spot, but he is going to need some luck.

You can see the updated Driver's Points Standings here.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is off next week, but will return to South Carolina on Labor Day Weekend for the Bojangles Southern 500 at Darlington Speedway on Sunday September 2nd.

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_{Photo credits: Yzukerman CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons}

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_{Author: @chops316
Editor: @liberty-minded}

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