Sports

Busch has last laugh among rivals following sweep

Font Size:

Kyle Busch was booed unmercifully by the crowd at every turn, and called a name over the public address system by Brad Keselowski.

Rival drivers were only half-joking when they said they’d avoid him on the race track, for fear of getting caught up in his mess. In the end, it was Busch who had the last laugh, from Victory Lane at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, where he made an unprecedented three visits in four days.

“Love him or hate him, but the little [pest] did pretty good,’’ Clint Bowyer said after Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race. “Three in a row here is quite a feat.’’

A NASCAR record feat.

Busch became the first driver in the 15 years that NASCAR has been running three national series to win all of them in the same week. He began his run with a win in the Trucks race Wednesday, had a controversial victory in the Nationwide race Friday, then completed the sweep with a drama-free win in Saturday’s premiere Cup Series.

But for all the celebrating of the record-breaking moment — someone from his crew radioed the Joe Gibbs Racing team was “in the presence of greatness’’ as he crossed the finish line in the last race — his escalating feud with Keselowski managed to steal some of the spotlight.

The two tangled in the Nationwide race when, after racing hard for the lead for at least a dozen laps, Keselowski wouldn’t lift when Busch slid in front of his car. They made contact, and Busch scraped the wall and slid down the track to lose position.

He immediately drove to the back of Keselowski’s bumper and intentionally wrecked him.

Keselowski vowed revenge after the race, and an unrepentant Busch fanned the flames with harsh words for his nemesis and taunting actions toward a disapproving crowd.

Keselowski turned it up a notch during driver introductions before Saturday’s race. Walking into the track moments after Busch was announced, Keselowski took the microphone and to a thunderous applause introduced himself before insulting Busch. It heightened the anticipation for another altercation, but it never happened.

Busch’s No. 18 Toyota was so strong the only time the two really raced near each other was late in the race when Busch lapped Keselowski. As expected, Keselowski made it extremely difficult for Busch to pass him, but Busch completed the move cleanly and sailed away to his third win this season and third in his last four Cup races at Bristol.

IndyCar — Will Power won at the track he had to be airlifted from a year ago, padding his series lead with a dominating run at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

Power never made it to race day in 2009, his season over with a practice session crash that left him with a broken back. But the Team Penske driver never showed fear in his return to Sonoma. Power set an IndyCar record with his eighth pole of 2010 on Saturday and led 73 of 75 laps over the technically demanding 2.303-mile circuit through the hills of California wine country.

Power pushed his series lead to 59 points over Dario Franchitti, who finished third behind Scott Dixon.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel