Kurt Busch wins at Bristol, again; Kenseth not happy



Kevin Harvick was second and Tony Stewart faded to 12th.
BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) -- Kurt Busch's friend and former teammate was in his way. So Busch banged Matt Kenseth aside -- the first of two hard shoves Kenseth received -- to win yet another race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Opinions differed after if Busch's brash bump with four laps to go Sunday in the Food City 500 was out of line.
"We had to muscle past Matt Kenseth," Busch shrugged. "He's a good friend of mine, but he'll be OK with it.
Uhh, not really.
"He knocked me out of the way," Kenseth said. "I thought if he had a run on me, had me beat, that would have been OK. But he drove extra hard and knocked me out of the way. I thought it was a cheap shot."
The bump
Kenseth was leading, but had slowed because he couldn't get past Dale Jarrett, who was fighting to stay on the lead lap. Tired of being held up, Busch rammed Kenseth's back bumper to send him into a slide. That allowed Busch to scoot on by for his fifth victory in the last nine Bristol races.
"I bumped into him a little bit and that was my window to get the lead," Busch said. "If I was still a teammate of his, maybe I would have let him live. But I was hungry."
It was Busch's first victory since joining Roger Penske's team at the start of the season and taking over the No. 2 Dodge that nine-time Bristol winner Rusty Wallace drove. Busch celebrated his victory by jumping from his car, grabbing the checkered flag and doing "snow angels" on the finish line as a nod to the wintry weather that plagued the track all weekend.
Kevin Harvick was second and seemed disappointed with his best finish of the season.
Plenty of discontent
"Good day for us, but I hate to see Kurt Busch win," Harvick said. "He's a big whiner. But what do I know?"
Kenseth wound up third, but had to fight for it. He faded after Busch's pass, worked his way back up but drew the ire of Jeff Gordon along the way. The two made contact in the closing laps that sent Gordon spinning all the way back to a 21st-place finish.
Still wearing his helmet and HANS device, Gordon stalked Kenseth on pit road. When Kenseth approached in what looked to be an apologetic way, Gordon gave him a hard shove that knocked him back several feet.
The two were quickly separated by NASCAR officials.
Carl Edwards finished fourth and Bobby Labonte was fifth to continue the resurgence of Petty Enterprises. It was the first top-five finish for a Petty car since John Andretti was second here in 2001.
Mark Martin and Greg Biffle were sixth and seventh to put four of Roush Racing's five drivers in the top seven.
Kyle Busch, who won Saturday's Busch race, was eighth. Ryan Newman was ninth and Kasey Kahne, last week's winner, rounded out the top 10.
Tony Stewart, who led a race-high 245 laps, faded at the end and wound up 12th.
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