The Food City 500 came down to a battle of the Busch brothers.
On Sunday, it turned out Kyle had the better car.
Kyle Busch drove his No. 18 to the checkered flag for his third win of the 2019 Monster Cup season, besting Kurt Busch by seven-tenths of a second. The win is Kyle's eighth at Bristol and second straight in the spring race.
"That one was tough; I really wanted to beat him," Kurt said, per Ellen J. Horrow of USA Today. "I was going to wreck him. I was wanting to stay close enough so that when we took we took the white, I was just going to drive straight in to [Turns] 3 and 4. I mean he's already won. I figured he could give a little love to his brother. No, of course not.
"I wanted that one bad. I feel like him right now—all mad because I didn't win."
Darrell Waltrip has the most Bristol wins with 12.
Bristol Motor Speedway lived up to its reputation Sunday, with the sport's toughest half mile creating a bumper-to-bumper environment that undid more than half of the field. Only 16 cars finished on the lead lap, and the race had 11 cautions.
Kyle Busch nearly had his own afternoon end early when he spun around on Lap 2 and had rear-end damage after being hit by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. That accident was caused by the field checking up because of the caution flag flying after Aric Almirola was sent into the wall by William Byron. Almirola could not survive the crash and finished 37th.
"Honestly, I think some of it his inexperience on William's part," Almirola said, per Motorsport's Tim Southers. "I think he started to panic because he started to lose spots on the start because he spun his tires on the start and probably a little bit over his head with the tire pressures not coming up and he just lost it."
Almirola had entered the weekend with six straight top-10s.
Busch, meanwhile, is the first driver since 1992 to begin a season with eight straight top-10s. He's opened up an eight-point lead over Denny Hamlin in the points standings. While his other two victories were because of a dominant car, Busch this time took advantage of smart pit strategy by staying out when the caution hit with 22 laps remaining and holding onto his lead.
"We're crazy. We just do what we to do to try to win," Busch said. "It was pretty awesome to be able to snooker those guys to get our win today at Bristol. I love this place. It was fun to battle it out with my brother there at the end.
"This Camry wasn't the best today, but we made the most out of not having the best and got what we needed to at the end."
Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five. Logano and Blaney spent most of the afternoon with the two best cars. Blaney led a race-high 158 laps.
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