After coming up short on numerous attempts to take the lead, Carl Edwards finally made the decisive pass on lap 470 en route to winning his second straight Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“Man, that was a lot of fun,” Edwards said. “I just bumped into [Busch] and moved him out of the way.
“That’s not the best way to win a race. This is NASCAR racing, and I wanted to win real bad.”
While Busch was peeved with his runner-up finish, Edwards said it was simply matter of hard racing.
“It’s one of those deals where I couldn’t get by him, I couldn’t get by him, and I just had to ask myself, ‘Would he do that to me?’ Edwards said after doing his trademark backflip off the car in Victory Lane. “And he has before, so that’s the way it goes.”
The triumph was also the sixth of the season for the Roush Fenway Racing driver, allowing him to close the gap of bonus points he’s likely to face when the 12-race Chase for the championship begins. Busch has eight wins, and each is worth 10 Chase bonus points.
With the victory, his sixth of the season and the 13th of his career, Edwards secured a position in the Chase for the Sprint Cup and trimmed Busch’s bonus points margin to 30. Unhappy with the way Edwards passed him for the lead, Busch bumped Edwards’ No. 99 Ford after the checkered flag.
“He hit me getting into Turn 1,’’ Busch said. “Whatever. Carl’s going to say he’s sorry, that he didn’t want to race that way, but he always does. We’ll take it, we’ll go on and we’ll race him that way in the Chase if that’s the way he wants to race.’‘
Edwards bumped back, and Busch’s No. 18 Toyota went spinning. To make matters worse, NASCAR summoned Busch to the sanctioning body’s transporter after the race.
“Let’s make it real clear—I’m not apologizing for it,” Edwards said, citing several instances where he felt like Busch took him out of races to gain positions. “We’re even.
“They keep talking about rivalries,’’ Edwards added. “We might have one now.’‘
Busch finished second, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon, three drivers needing good nights to bolster their playoff prospects.
Ryan Newman was sixth and was the only car not in Chase contention in the top 10. Clint Bowyer was seventh, followed by Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth and rookie David Ragan.
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