“I feel like Dale Sr. right now, and I didn’t even do anything”, Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch made the best out of his track position by leading his way from turn 4 to the finish line to steal a win at the Bristol dirt.
Mud Cakes
NASCAR’s return to dirt had a good start to the main event of Easter festivities. Chase Briscoe used the grippy track to muscle his way into the lead followed by Christopher Bell and Cole Custer. While it all looked smooth and cars seemed happy to not go sideways, dirt was causing problems regardless.
Grilles were starting to get clogged up, so much that Custer had to pit on lap 11 just to get it all scraped off, and so did Aric Almirola. As promised, NASCAR threw a competition caution to clean cars up.
Pitstops themselves were well different when playing with mud. Windshields were being cleaned, grilles were getting hosed with compressed air and Custer got one of his two laps back thanks to stopping a lap earlier than everyone else.
Briscoe brought out the second caution of the day on lap 49 thanks to a flat right rear tire that sent him down the track narrowly avoiding contact with other cars. Things settled halfway through the stage, track did start to dry so a little bit and spray made his presence felt by the end of the stage.
Kyle Larson picked up his first stage win of the season. Drier conditions and more dust were up next.
A Tale of Old Tires
Las Vegas was long gone but Daniel Suarez, Ross Chastain, and Chase Briscoe took a gamble by not pitting at the end of the stage. The latter of them got back a lap and was no racing with the leaders
Suarez took the lead because of that and ran away with the lead of the pack until Alex Bowman brought up the fourth caution of the night with a spin entering turn four. Not even a lap after the restart, a four-car pile-up took out Corey LaJoie, Noah Gragson, and Bowman himself.
As rain started to threat track action, Denny Hamlin was off the race due to engine failure, and Daniel Suarez and his aging tires had to “dip” in the fresh mud to cool its rubber. A couple of laps later, as soon as the Mexican driver was about to lose his spot to teammate Ross Chastain, Brad Keselowski spun at turn two bringing out the fifth caution of the night.
Radars were filled with rain and it seemed like it was now or never for the ones in the lead, Suarez vs Bell with 14 to go in what could be the very last stage of the race. The battle lasted a little tough, Suarez got loose on dry dirt and gave way to Chase Briscoe who simply rode it out to win the stage.
Rain was on the loom, but not yet at the track
Kyle Busch Gets the Steal
Minutes before the start of the final stage, covers had to come out and cars had to get stalled at pit lane. Rain was coming down with a fury. Wait time was up next as NASCAR had to make the call to keep on racing or go home.
It took almost an hour for the rain to clear. Despite delays, water did bring good things to the track. Among them was the fact that most cars wouldn’t have to worry about making it on fuel and the fact that the race surface was fresh, wet, and free of dust.
RCR had a good start to the final set of laps as Tyler Reddick led the race with 75 to go and Austin Dillon was inside the top five.
It was Dillon who lost all power with a little over 40 to go and collected Kurt Busch in the process. Minutes after that, rain came pouring once again, hard.
The race seemed over by then, NASCAR had to make the final call. Race director, however, had other plans and decided to keep on going.
It all came down to the final lap as Chase Briscoe went all out with a slide job to get first place from Reddick. Nonetheless, he wrecked himself and Reddick in the process. Behind them, was Kyle Busch, all he did was cross the line to get the win.
The younger of the Busch brothers is your winner on Easter.
Featured Image: Twitter @JoeGibbsRacing
