NASCAR Cup

Kyle Busch takes another Sprint Cup win at Bristol

By Amanda Vincent, NASCAR reporter

Edited: Mar 21, 2011, 2:55 PM

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Kyle Busch visited Bristol Motor Speedway's victory lane for the second time of the weekend on Sunday after the Jeff Byrd 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. It was also Busch's fifth-consecutive NASCAR national-level win at BMS.

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota take the checkered flag

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

"It (winning) was a lot harder today," Busch said after Sunday's race. "Carl (Edwards) kept me honest."

After claiming the pole for Sunday's race during Friday's qualifying session, Edwards fell back through the field to work his way back up toward the front to battle Busch for the win in the late laps.

According to Edwards, he "didn't look so good in the middle of the race."

Paul Menard led 35 laps early. Other leaders early on included Martin Truex Jr., who led 63 laps on the day, and Kurt Busch.

Kurt Busch and Menard stayed within the top-five of the running order throughout most of the remainder of the race, but Truex faded back. He eventually fell out of the top-10 and off the lead lap before winding up with a 17th-place finish.

After leading a few laps here and there throughout the race, Kyle Busch, for the most part, took the lead for good during a caution on lap 428 by only taking two fresh tires on his pit stop while most of the other front- runners took four.

"Our guys on that last pit stop won the race," Busch said in victory lane.

Busch, as a result, restarted in the lead and was credited with leading every lap the rest of the way, except for one when Edwards got the nose of his car in front of him as the two crossed the start/finish line. Edwards wasn't able to complete the pass, though, and Busch quickly re-assumed the top spot.

It (winning) was a lot harder today, Carl (Edwards) kept me honest.

Kyle Busch

"I thought I could get to him at the end and rough him up a little and maybe get by him, but his car took off," Edwards said.

As Busch proceeded to drive away, Edwards fell into the clutches of Jimmie Johnson and they battled for the second spot the rest of the way. Johnson was unable to get by Edwards, so Edwards wound up finishing in the second spot, and Johnson had to settle for third.

Matt Kenseth finished fourth, and Menard rounded out the top-five.

"Fourth is probably more than we deserved," Kenseth said after the race.

According to Kenseth, the reason he was able to finish where he did was because of being lucky in regards to where he lined up on several restarts in the closing stages of the race.

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