Kyle Busch Wins Final Sharpie 500 Race at Bristol

Kyle Busch took the lead from Ryan Newman and Michael Waltrip by going three-wide on lap 433. He held off all challenges on several restarts including the last one that was 15 minutes long for rain. Martin who started his 1,000 NASCAR race was not able to get around Busch on a four lap sprint to the checker flag.

The win ties Busch and Martin for the most wins this season in the Sprint Cup Series with four each. It also moved Busch closer to getting into the Chase. He is now in 13th position with two races to go before the start of the Chase. Only the top twelve are in the Chase for the Championship.

Busch is not having the season in the Sprint Cup he was expecting this year, which is why he is now fighting to get back into the Chase. The win at Bristol Saturday night was on the second time in the last eleven races that he has finished inside the top five.

Marcus Ambrose proved he was not just a road course racer with a strong run all night on the short track. He finished third behind Martin. Greg Biffle finished fourth after starting on the front row beside Martin. Denny Hamlin came back from a left front tire going down on lap 65 to finish fifth.

Ryan Newman ended his marathon week by finishing sixth. Newman raced all four NASCAR events at Bristol this week starting with the Modified race Wednesday night in which he crashed out of on lap two.

Defending series champion, Jimmy Johnson led for a while during the race and came in eighth place. Johnson finished just ahead of his teammate; Dale Earnhardt Jr. would had one of his best races of the season finishing ninth.

Point leader Tony Stewart had a night he would like to forget. Plagued with radio trouble for the first part of the race and an ill-handling race car the whole night, Stewart finished 33rd, eleven laps down.

The night race at Bristol Motor Speedway is one of the most popular on the NASCAR schedule. The half-mile short track is located in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Tennessee and 160,000 people pack the bullring track for constant side-by-side racing.

Kyle Busch can permanently write his name in the history books as winning the last Sharpie 500 at Bristol. Since 2001 the race has been the Sharpie 500. In 2010 it will change to the “Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol.” Sharpie and Irwin are both companies in the Newell Rubbermaid family. Irwin is currently a sponsor on Roush Fenway Racing car #26 driven by Jamie McMurray.