Qualifying
Winner of this race in 2007 and winner last week in Michigan Carl Edwards picked up where he left off and put his Roush-Fenway Ford on the pole. David Reutimann had the best qualifying effort of his career to start second.
Jeff Gordon and rookie Regan Smith made up row two. NASCAR legend Bill Elliott rounded out the top five.
Drop Of The Green
Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon lead the field into turn one as David Reutimann fell immediately back to third.
The race stayed green for the first 97 laps in spite of some Bristol beating and banging on the track. Most notably Jimmie Johnson got into the outside wall and spent some time on pit road getting his damage repaired.
Kyle Busch eventually found his way to the front and continued to lead through the early going.
Storylines
In the closing laps Carl Edwards gave Kyle Busch a little bump and run. He pushed Busch up the hill a little bit and made the pass.
After the race was over Kyle Busch took exception to Edwards' pass and hit Edwards. After the hit Edwards spun Kyle Busch across the track and continued to his victory celebration.
Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch have a great rivalry building. These two drivers are the best in the sport at the moment and a little healthy competition between these two is good for the sport. I hope NASCAR skips the penalties this week.
Chasing The Checkers
Kyle Busch dominated much of the race. He was comfortably ahead of Carl Edwards as the race entered the closing laps.
After a couple of caution flags bunched up the field Edwards gave Busch a little bump and run and took over the lead with 32 laps to go. Kyle tried to give it back but Edwards got clear and picked up a couple of carlengths.
Denny Hamlin moved past Busch for second and those two battled for the second spot while Edwards continued to pull away. Edwards held on for the victory.
Top Ten
- Carl Edwards
- Kyle Busch
- Denny Hamlin
- Kevin Harvick
- Jeff Gordon
- Ryan Newman
- Clint Bowyer
- Tony Stewart
- Matt Kenseth
- David Ragan
The Points
Carl Edwards' second win in-a-row chopped another ten points from Kyle Busch's bonus point lead. If the Chase started tomorrow Kyle Busch would have a 30 point lead based on bonus points for winning races.
Kasey Kahne was caught up in someone elses mess. His wreck cost him three places in the points. Kahne fell out of the top twelve and was replaced by Clint Bowyer.
- Kyle Busch
- Carl Edwards -212
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. -416
- Jimmie Johnson -418
- Jeff Burton -492
- Tony Stewart -596
- Greg Biffle -625
- Kevin Harvick -637
- Jeff Gordon -658
- Matt Kenseth -688
- Denny Hamlin -709
- Clint Bowyer -754
Next Week
Next weekend the Sprint Cup series will head west to Auto Club Speedway in California. Carl Edwards won in California earlier this year. Can he carry his momentum from Michigan and Bristol to claim his third consecutive win?
