Kyle Busch passed Chris Buescher with two laps to go in a green-white-checkered finish to earn his eighth career Xfinity win at Bristol Motor Speedway in Friday night’s Food City 300.
The scheduled 300-lap race was extended to 302 laps by a late caution.
Buescher got a great jump on the restart but suddenly fell back out of fuel. Buescher, who led 106 laps, finished 11th.
Busch led 89 laps. He has eight career Xfinity wins at both Bristol and Charlotte.
Kyle Larson finished second, followed by pole-sitter Denny Hamlin, who led 106 laps. Ty Dillon finished fourth, followed by Daniel Suarez in fifth. Sixth through 10th were Brian Scott, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Regan Smith and Brendan Gaughan.
MORE: Results of Friday night’s Xfinity race at Bristol
MORE: Points tighten but Chris Buescher maintains lead in Xfinity Series
How Busch won: Fuel strategy is what won it for Busch. Even with tires that had 100 laps on them, he saved fuel when he needed and that was the difference. Points leader Chris Buescher ran out of fuel with two laps to go and Busch motored on unimpeded to Victory Lane.
Who else had a good race: Kyle Larson had one of his best races of the season, finishing second to Busch. Hamlin fell back in the pack, but rallied to finish third. … Daniel Suarez finished fifth and earned the $100,000 Xfinity Dash4Cash bonus, finishing higher than the other three contenders (Elliott Sadler, Regan Smith and Ryan Blaney).
Who had a bad race: Elliott Sadler’s championship hopes took a hit when he wrecked on Lap 250. Sadler glanced off Brendan Gaughan and then into the outside retaining wall. Sadler finished 31st and fell to 82 points behind Buescher. … Ryan Blaney, who won Wednesday’s Truck Series race, finished 22nd.
Notable: Buescher once again lost a few points in his edge over top challengers Ty Dillon (19 points back) and Chase Elliott (23 points back) and Regan Smith (51 points back). … Richard Childress Racing surpassed one million laps late in the race, becoming just the third organization in NASCAR to reach that milestone across all three major series (Sprint Cup, Xfinity and Truck). … Suarez moved up to into a tie with Darrell Wallace Jr. for sixth place in the standings. Both drivers are 103 points behind Buescher.
Quote of the night: “We just lost a little bit of fuel there at the end. I knew it would be close, but I wouldn’t change it if we could. We’re not here to just layover and just finish eighth every week. We’re here to win races. I thought it was the right call. … It just didn’t work out. I’m mad, pissed off.” – Chris Buescher, who ran out of fuel with two laps to go, costing him the win.
What’s next: Road America 180 Fired Up By Johnsonville, Aug. 29, 3:00 pm ET (TV: NBCSN).
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