Sitting outside the Chase and with only three top-10 finishes since his win at Richmond fourteen races ago, Kyle Busch was hungry to get back to Victory Lane. Scoring the win in Wednesday night’s Truck Series event, Busch carried momentum with him into Saturday night’s Food City 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race at the Bristol Motor Speedway. On a night in which Mark Martin was dominant in his 1,000th career start, it was Busch who was able to put himself in position when it mattered most to score his fourth victory of the year and sweep this year’s Bristol events.

Biding his time and being uncharacteristically patient, the kid they normally call ‘Rowdy’ methodically worked his way to the front from his fifteenth starting spot. With Martin and his Hendrick Motorsport teammate Jimmie Johnson dueling for the top-spot much of the night, Busch calmly put himself in position to strike. Taking advantage of a restart with off-sequence cars bringing the field to the green late in the running, the 24-year-old driver jumped to the lead when Michael Waltrip bobbled out front. For the next sixty-eight laps Busch worked his way through lapped traffic and to his fourth checkered flag of the year.

Entering the day thirteenth in the standings, seventy points out of twelfth, Busch knew he had his work cut out for him if he wanted to be a factor in this year’s Chase. With Martin out front climbing his way up the standings, Busch kept his head cool and his car clean to score the upset win and move within thirty-four points of twelfth spot.

“We got track position when it mattered most there on the last stop,” Busch told reporters in his post-race press conference. “Got by the 55 (Waltrip) and the 39 (Ryan Newman) when it mattered.  Wish we could have set sail from there.  But we had some cautions there late and the red flag and everything.

“Really set up a tight battle between myself and Mark Martin, who is the best car all night,” the race winner went on to say. “Man, what an honorable racecar driver Mark Martin is.  Such an honor to race with him.  To give him the room that he needed, for him to give me the room I needed was awesome.  I can't thank him enough.  He didn't let me win the race, but he certainly didn't take it from us.  Man, I love those guys on that team.”

Celebrating in his signature fashion, Busch smoked the tires on the frontstretch then emerged from his car as the crowd went crazy. Making his way to the flag stand, the race winner grabbed the checkered flag from the official and then stuck it through the fence to a fan who got one of the most unique souvenirs in all of NASCAR.

“I tried giving it to a young Kyle Busch fan who was in tears,” Busch said of his gracious post-race gesture. “I don't know if it was of me winning or what.  But a young lady in the stands had a Kyle Busch shirt on, she was tearing.  There was another guy behind her with an M&M jacket on, too.  I don't know if it was husband and wife or father and daughter or what, but I tried giving it to her.  Some Tony Stewart fan came in and tried to wrangle it away.  Hopefully she got it.  That was pretty cool.  I saw a couple others along the fence line, but she was the one in tears.  That was neat to give to her.”

Despite having four victories on the year, Martin headed into Bristol on the bubble of the Chase, with just a twelve point buffer on Brian Vickers in thirteenth. Focusing on the bigger picture, the veteran driver set out to solidify his Chase berth and did just that. Leading the most laps and coming home in the second spot, Martin jumped to tenth in the standings, now twenty-six points ahead of Matt Kenseth who fell to twelfth.

"That was pretty exciting,” Martin said after his 1,000th career start. “I want to thank all the fans again for being so great tonight. Thank you guys. You brought a tear to my eye. What can I say? Kyle (Busch) gave me room and I didn't get the pass. We were both racing hard for it. That inside was tough and I took my shot at it. I just about slid up into him and wiped us both out. He gave me plenty of room there. He didn't crowd me at all and I needed the room because I slipped the back end and I did everything I could. I wanted to get him but just couldn't pull it off."

Restarting the race with just five laps to go, the field doubled up with Busch on the outside and Martin tucked under on the inside. Taking the green flag, both drivers drove their guts out for the win, but Busch took a slight advantage. Slipping a bit, Martin was able to pull to the inside of Busch’s No. 18 M&M’s Toyota as they raced side-by-side for the lead. With the white flag in the air, Martin closed in on the back bumper of Busch, but opted to race him clean and take a peek to the inside instead of moving him out of the way.

"I don't think he (Kyle Busch) would have (used it) on me,” Martin explained. “He gave me room. I just didn't get it done. He gave me room to pass him and I couldn't do it.”

In a very impressive run, JTG-Daugherty Racing’s Marcos Ambrose scored the third-place finish in just his second start at Bristol. Running up front for much of the evening after starting mid-pack in twenty-fifth, Ambrose was able to stay out of trouble to score his best finish on an oval since his fourth at Talladega.

“Just a wonderful night for me,” Ambrose said after a demanding 500 laps at Bristol. “My first year in the Cup Series.  To be racing with Mark in his thousandth start, racing with Kyle Busch, who will probably go down in history as one of the best of all time, I just feel privileged to be out there and running with them.”

Points leader Tony Stewart struggled from the get-go Saturday night, as radio issues complicated matters and made for a long evening. Unable to communicate with crew chief Darian Grubb or the rest of his crew, Stewart fought the handling of the car and fell laps behind the leader as he chased the car and the crew attempted to remedy the radio issue. In the end, Stewart finished 33rd, eleven laps down – his worst finish of the year.

"Darian called on the radio and they thought I could hear him the whole time, which I couldn't; I couldn't hear him at all, and he ended up tightening the car up when I was asking for it to be freer,” Stewart explained. “So we've just got to work on that system and get it down pat a little better."

Built up as one of the most anticipated events of the year, Saturday’s night race in Bristol lacked the excitement promised by the driver introductions – complete with entrance music – and the prospect of double-file restarts on the World’s Fastest Half Mile. While there was an abundance of two and three-wide racing throughout the pack, Martin led a dominant 240 of 500 laps, while Johnson was at the helm for 107 circuits. There were eleven cautions on the evening, but the bump-and-run move was absent and racing was a bit tame for Bristol’s tastes.

                  SHARPIE 500 RESULTS

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