Busch Wins Race At Bristol

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Kyle Busch wins Busch race at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Kyle Busch benefited from Greg Biffle's late tire problem to take the lead with 12 laps to go and held on to win the Busch Series race on a cold, snowy Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Biffle led 29 of the final 40 laps and was headed to the win when the wheel became loose on his Ford and he had to relinquish the lead to pit. As he ducked off the track, Busch slid past him and braced himself for a challenge from Kevin Harvick.

Harvick was right on his rear bumper, but couldn't get by Busch and faded on the final lap. It allowed Busch to coast to his first Bristol win, while Harvick had to hold off a late push from Matt Kenseth to hang on for second place.

"I was able to make a pretty clean pass [of Biffle], but I wasn't sure I was going to be able to hold off Harvick at all," Busch said. "But I did. This is Bristol, I love it here. This is where my brother always wins, so it's great for me to get one."

Kurt Busch has four wins at Bristol and seven top-10 finishes in 10 tries. Now his little brother has one, too.

Nextel Cup drivers have won all six Busch Series events this season. Kyle Busch became the sixth different Nextel Cup regular to win a Busch race this season.

The win was his first of the year, and he had not finished higher than 19th through the first five races. He finally broke through on a snowy day in the East Tennessee mountains.

Qualifying was canceled earlier Saturday because of flurries, and the race was stopped for a whiteout after just 32 laps.

As "Frosty the Snowman" blared over the track PA system, teams and drivers entertained themselves during the delay by throwing snowballs at each other and the fans. One crew even built a small snowman along pit road.

The snow eventually stopped, the sun came out and racing resumed after a delay of 1 hour, 19 minutes.

From there it looked like Harvick's race to win. He led three times for 120 laps, but gave it up because he thought he had a flat tire. But when he pitted, it was only a large piece of debris to stuck to his tire.

The service stop dropped Harvick back to 32nd place with 152 laps to go.

Still, he steadily moved through the field and had rallied all the way to third when racing resumed with 27 laps to go after the 13th and final caution. As he and Busch battled each other, Biffle looked headed to a comfortable win until his mechanical problem.

That allowed Busch to cruise into the lead, where it seemed it was only a matter of time before Harvick would get by.

It never happened.

"I knew if I could get to his bumper, I had a great chance," Harvick said. "I just never could get all the way there. I hate it because we had a great car."

Kenseth finished third and was followed by Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Scott Riggs as Cup regulars swept the top six spots. Ron Hornaday Jr. was the highest finishing Busch regular in seventh place.

Biffle wound up 28th and left the track without commenting.