NNS: Busch wins amongst the fireworks and drama at Richmond

Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR

Another win for Kyle Busch, to be exact – win No. 51 in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. This is Busch’s eighth victory and his 17th top-10 finish of the season.


While Busch’s win, or the win of a Cup series driver may not be a shock to fan, the big action came on track in the form of tempers flaring. We saw battled between Danica Patrick and Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick and Jason Leffler twice, Kevin Harvick and Trevor Bayne, Brian Scott and Aric Almirola…the list goes on. The battles reminded me of what we normally see after Bristol, though Richmond is also a short track and as the saying goes; “short tracks = short tempers.”


Not alone in the celebration, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is also celebrating after Richmond, as he is the latest winner in the Nationwide Series Dash 4 Case. Stenhouse takes home a check for $100,000 as his prize winnings from the promotion.

Friday night, short tracks equal short tempers.

Race highlights and lowlights: 

• Brad Keselowski starts on pole with Carl Edwards alongside. Edwards takes the lead at lap 9.
• lap 68 – Aric Almirola (No. 88) makes contact with Blake Koch (No. 81) and spins Koch to bring out the first caution. Almirola make contact with the rear of Koch, sending Koch spinning. The Daystar.com team would get the damage fixed for Koch to finish in p.27
• lap 80 – Part one of this incident: Brad Keselowski (No. 22) scrapes the wall but there was no caution. Moments later, Kevin Harvick (No. 33) and Jason Leffler (No. 38)  collect one another for their first round of the evening, bring out the second caution. Leffler told Jamie Little he would be back out on track, with a smirk on his face..see later. After the restart, Carl Edwards retakes the lead.
• lap 140 – Danica Patrick’s No. 7 car slides into Brad Keselowski for the third caution. On her in car radio, Patrick said “I slid up, that was my fault.”
• lap 147 – What is that saying, cautions breed cautions? Upon restart at lap 145, we got to race for just 2 laps when the caution flag flew once again for an accident between the No. 11 of Brian Scott and the aforementioned Almirola. After being released from the infield care center, the frustration was evident from Scott as he cited past incidents with Almirola.
• lap 161 – Eric McClure (No. 14) crashes in a single car accident
• lap 212 – Initially this started off with Leffler and Harvick, Leffler brake checked Harvick and Trevor Bayne was behind Harvick, got a crinkled hood. Bayne later passed both Leffler and Harvick only to be turned by Harvick. On Bayne’s radio he said “Harvick wrecked us!” After the race Bayne went on to say, ““Harvick is normally a way better racer than that. It is just frustrating when people do stuff like that and it is intentional. He let the 2 car go and intentionally blocked us to keep me from passing them both. It is frustrating when we had that good of a car and had that good of a day.”  As for Harvick and his side of the story, he said via his in car radio, ““He got into me and I got loose and wound up hitting him.’’ (Bayne) got into the back of me off (turn) 2 and the thing got loose and it started tail-snapping.’’ After the race in his interview, Harvick did say “I turned him.”

Race Results:

1. Kyle Busch
2. Carl Edwards
3. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
4. Ryan Truex
5. Kenny Wallace
6. Elliott Sadler
7. Aric Almirola
8. Reed Sorenson
9. Justin Allgaier
10. Joe Nemechek
11. Michael Annett
12. Mike Bliss
13. David Stremme
14. Jeremy Clements
15. Mike Wallace
16. Steven Wallace
17. Timmy Hill
18. Danica Patrick
19. Brad Keselowski
20. Kevin Harvick
21. Derrike Cope
22. Robert Richardson Jr.
23. Kevin Lepage
24. Morgan Shepherd
25. Luis Martinez Jr.
26. Ricky Carmichael
27. Blake Koch
28. Trevor Bayne
29. Jason Leffler
30. Eric McClure
31. Jamie McMurray
32. Brian Scott
33. Josh Wise
34. Johnny Chapman
35. Matt Carter
36. Jeff Green
37. Carl Long
38. Tim Andrews
39. Dennis Setzer
40. Mark Green
41. Scott Riggs
42. Chase Miller
43. Brian Keselowski