Monday, March 21, 2011
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch (who qualified 12th) won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2011 Jeff Byrd 500 that was held yesterday at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee, United States. This was his first Sprint Cup win of the season. Throughout the course of the race there were 10 cautions and 19 lead changes among eight drivers.
Before the final pit stops, Jimmie Johnson was first, but after the stops concluded he fell to third as Kyle Busch became the leader. Kyle Busch maintained the lead to win the race ahead of Carl Edwards, while Johnson finished in the third position. Matt Kenseth took fouth, ahead of Paul Menard in fifth. Kevin Harvick managed the sixth position, after starting 15th on the grid. Kurt Busch, from the Penske Racing team, clinched the seventh position. Greg Biffle followed Kurt Busch in eighth, while Kasey Kahne could only manage ninth. Ryan Newman rounded out the top ten finishers in the race. Johnson led the most laps during the race with 164.
After doing his victory lap, Kyle Busch, who won the Nationwide Series race on Saturday, commented, “You go down the straightaway and you slam it into the corners and you mash the gas and you kind of sling right back out of the corners. It’s a lot of fun to do that. It’s kind of an art. Some guys are really good at it, and some find a knack that makes them really good at it and make it seem easy.”
Edwards described his frustration by finishing second, “I thought we’d be better matched with him, but he took off, and I just couldn’t get back to him to race. My gut told me there was going to be another caution. If I had known that was the only shot I had, I might have raced a little harder.”
Following the race, Kurt Busch became Drivers’ Championship leader with 150 points. Next, Edwards was second with 149, 11 points ahead of Tony Stewart and Newman. Menard and Kyle Busch was placed fifth and sixth with 136 and 133 points. Johnson, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Martin Truex, Jr. rounded out the top-ten point positions.
The 2011 season will continue on March 27, 2011 at Auto Club Speedway for the 2011 Auto Club 400. The race will be televised in the U.S. on the FOX Network at 3:00 p.m. EDT.