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Busch Outdoors Driver Scores 15th Top-10 Finish of 2017

Date: Aug. 19, 2017

Event: Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race (Round 24 of 36)

Series: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series

Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (.533-mile, high-banked oval)

Format: 500 laps, broken into three stages (125 laps/125 laps/250 laps)

Start/Finish: 29th/8th (Running, completed 500 of 500 laps)

Point Standing: 4th (824 points, 127 out of first)

 

Race Winner: Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

Stage 1 Winner: Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

Stage 2 Winner: Matt Kenseth of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

 

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-125):

• Kevin Harvick started 29th, finished 11th.
• The Busch Outdoors Ford Fusion entered the top-15 on lap 52, while Harvick reported a tight-handling condition.
• Harvick came to pit road under caution on lap 63 for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment.
• The No. 4 teamcame to pit road for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment at the conclusion of Stage 1. Harvick gained one position on pit road.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 126-250):

• Started 10th, finished third and earned eight bonus points.
• The Busch Outdoors Ford raced into the top-five on lap 141.
• Harvick came to pit road under caution on lap 202 for tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment to fix a tight-handling condition.
• The No. 4 team opted to stay out on lap 141 and advanced to the third position as most of the leaders came to pit road.
• Harvick came to pit road for four tires, fuel and a wedge adjustment at the conclusion of Stage 2.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 251-500):

• Started 17th, finished eighth.
• The Busch Outdoors Ford re-entered the top-10 on lap 282.
• Harvick came to pit road under caution while racing in the sixth position on lap 356 for four tires and fuel.
• The No. 4 Ford stayed out in the third position on lap 416 to save its final set of tires for the end of the race.
• The Busch Outdoors Ford dropped to 11th as several cars pitted for fresh tires on lap 416, but Harvick rallied to an eighth-place finish as the race continued uninterrupted under green-flag conditions.

Notes:

• Harvick scored his 15th top-10 finish of 2017 and his 17th in the Cup Series at Bristol Motor Speedway.
• Harvick finished third in Stage 2 to earn an additional eight bonus points.
• The race featured 21 lead changes among six drivers.
• There were eight caution periods for a total of 53 laps.
• Fifteen of the 40 drivers in the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race finished on the lead lap.
• Kyle Busch won the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race to score his 40th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his sixth at Bristol. His margin of victory over second-place Erik Jones was 1.422 seconds.
• Truex leads the championship standings with 951 points and has a 101-point margin over his nearest pursuer, Busch.

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Outdoors Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“We had a good Busch Outdoors Ford, but we were just tighter than we needed to be on the next-to-last run. Then the tire strategy just didn’t go our way at the end. Who would have thought we would run all the way to the end under green? It was a good car.”

Next Up:

The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Southern 500 on Sunday, Sept. 3 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. The race starts at 6 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBCSN, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio channel 90.

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