NASCAR Cup Series: Kurt Busch wins 2018 Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race
By Asher Fair
Kurt Busch earned his first victory of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season in the season’s 24th race, the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kurt Busch took the checkered flag in the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, the 24th race of the 36-race 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season. This win is the 30th win of his career, but it is just his first win of the season.
By winning the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, the 40-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native ended a 58-race win drought, as he had not won a race since he won last year’s Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.
Busch won the 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0,858-kilometer) Bristol Motor Speedway oval in Bristol, Tennessee in his #41 Ford by 0.367 seconds over second place finisher Kyle Larson of Chip Ganassi Racing after starting in ninth.
Larson, who started the race from the pole position, was the highest finishing Chevrolet driver of the race in his #42 Chevrolet. He now has five second place finishes so far this season, but he has not yet been able to win a race in 2018.
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Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott finished the race in third place in his #9 Chevrolet, giving Chevrolet drivers two of the top three finishing positions. Team Penske’s Joey Logano finished in fourth in his #22 Ford. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Erik Jones was the highest finishing driver of the race. He finished in fifth in his #20 Toyota.
The race featured a total of 19 lead changes among nine drivers. Aside of Busch, who led just 24 laps of the race, eight drivers led at least one lap of the race. Those eight drivers were Larson, Elliott, Logano, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Blaney, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman and Aric Almirola. Blaney, who led more laps than anybody else in the field with 121 laps led, won stage one. Logano won stage two.
The race also featured a total of nine caution flag periods for 70 laps. Two of those caution flag periods took place as a result of the endings of stages one and two like usual and one was a competition caution. The other six caution flag periods took place as a result of on-track incidents.
A total of 40 drivers started the race. Of those 40 drivers, 30 finished the race, and of the 30 drivers who finished the race,15 finished it on the lead lap.
Here are the full race results of the 2018 Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
| Race Results |
| 1st – Kurt Busch |
| 2nd – Kyle Larson |
| 3rd – Chase Elliott |
| 4th – Joey Logano |
| 5th – Erik Jones |
| 6th – Clint Bowyer |
| 7th – Ryan Blaney |
| 8th – Alex Bowman |
| 9th – Jimmie Johnson |
| 10th – Kevin Harvick |
| 11th – Trevor Bayne |
| 12th – Ryan Newman |
| 13th – Austin Dillon |
| 14th – Denny Hamlin |
| 15th – Kasey Kahne |
| 16th – Brad Keselowski |
| 17th – David Ragan |
| 18th – Daniel Suarez |
| 19th – Chris Buescher |
| 20th – Kyle Busch |
| 21st – Ty Dillon |
| 22nd – Matt DiBenedetto |
| 23rd – William Byron |
| 24th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
| 25th – Landon Cassill |
| 26th – Ross Chastain |
| 27th – Blake Jones |
| 28th – Timmy Hill |
| 29th – Jamie McMurray |
| 30th – Martin Truex Jr. |
| 31st – Aric Almirola |
| 32st – J.J. Yeley |
| 33rd – Reed Sorenson |
| 34rd – Corey Lajoie |
| 35th – Jesse Little |
| 36th – Paul Menard |
| 37th – Michael McDowell |
| 38th – Darrell Wallace Jr. |
| 39th – A.J. Allmendinger |
| 40th – Gray Gaulding |
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The NASCAR Cup Series has off next weekend. The next race on the 2018 schedule is the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. That race is scheduled to take place on Sunday, September 2, and it is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network starting at 6:00 p.m. ET.