Kyle Busch watches dominating day at Bristol end with parts failure, crash

Rea White

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Kyle Busch watches dominating day at Bristol end with parts failure, crash image

Kyle Busch's dominating day at Bristol ended with a mechanical issue and then a crash late in the rain-delayed Sprint Cup race at Bristol.

Busch had led 256 laps when he said he had a front-end parts failure. Before he could hit pit road, his car got sideways on the track. He appeared to have avoided serious trouble when Justin Allgaier came off the turn and slammed into Busch's car, which was facing his.

MORE: Tony Stewart finds trouble at Bristol

Allgaier, who is driving in relief of an ailing Michael Annett, then slid up the track and into the car of Martin Truex Jr., who was hit by Kyle Larson.

Busch, who also crashed in Friday night's Xfinity race when battling for the win, was quite upset.

"Something breaking. Obviously," he told NBC when asked what happened. "It's a shame. Last few times we've been here we've had really fast (cars) and we haven't been able to finish. We've been having parts failures here. So something we've got to address and fix. I'm really tired of losing races here with parts falling apart so they'll hear about it on Tuesday."

Busch wasn't done.

He was clearly upset with the No. 46 team — and not just the driver.

"But the person that's really the biggest moron out there is the spotter of the (No.) 46 and the driver of the 46," he told NBC. "I've been wrecking for half a lap and they just come on through and clean us out. That's stupid. I don't know.

"Frustrating day. Let's go home."

Allgaier was driving the 46.

"I was trying to let the leaders go as best I could. We were a couple laps down right there and let them go," Allgaier said. Joey Logano "ducked in front of me getting into (Turn) 1 and I had to jam on the brakes pretty hard. I got really loose and I was just trying to catch it.

"That is when the spotter was telling me that [Busch] was spinning and he kept rolling down the hill so at first I committed to go below him because I was already on the bottom and then he was still coming down the hill so I tried to go out around the outside of him and unfortunately I just didn't make it."

Apologizing to Busch, he said crash was "the worst possibly scenario when the leader spins out and you hit them. Just really frustrating."

Busch had been enjoying a stellar outing in the rain-delayed race, though NBC had already reported that he was battling a headache.

MORE: Bristol race weekend images

"He radioed in and said, 'Next time in, guys, give me a bottle of water with some Goodies headache powder in it. I've got a pretty bad headache right now,' " the network reported during the broadcast.

Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates were strong at Bristol all week. They qualified in the top three positions for the race and then Busch dominated the first half of the race.

On Lap 320, while back in the lead after surrendering it to Kevin Harvick for a few laps, Busch radioed his team that he thought he had an issue with his car, but he continued to hold off the field.

Busch would finish the race in 39th place, one ahead of Allgaier.

Rea White