Kyle Busch poses for the crowd

Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

In his quest for a history-making three-race sweep, Kyle Busch proved that nothing is going to stand in his way – not a last-place start, not fuel mileage, not even Brad Keselowski.

Busch moved one step closer to becoming the first driver to win a race in all three of NASCAR’s top series is a single weekend with a victory in Friday night’s wild finish to the Food City 250 Nationwide Series event at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Fresh off of his worst-to-first performance in Wednesday night’s Camping World Truck Series event, Busch took out Keselowski with 32 laps to go and held off Jason Leffler through the final laps to claim his record-tying 10th win the season.

Elliott Sadler, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Carl Edwards rounded out the top five.

Kyle Busch drives by Brad Keselowski after the two made contact in Turn 4 of Lap 218. Busch won for the 10th time of the season, tying the NASCAR Nationwide Series record held by Sam Ard and Busch (in 2008)

Geoff Burke/Getty Images

Busch now needs only a victory in Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race to score the trifecta, but much like Wednesday night’s race, he’s not about to let anyone stand in his way.

Following Friday night’s victory, an unapologetic Busch not only admitted to taking out Keselowski, he said he had it coming.

“I tried and tried and tried lap after lap to stay clean with Brad (Keselowski) and I finally had him almost cleared - yeah I slid up in front of him - that’s a slide job and then he ran into the back of me and put me in the wall,” said Busch. “So, I said forget it man, you play that game and I’ll play it back. So, I dumped him.”

“I thought I had him cleared on the back and I moved up in front of him and instead of him doing an Earnhardt crossover move he decided that he would just run into the back of me and put me in the fence. So, that’s Brad Keselowski. So, you know, I went down into the next corner and dumped him.

“He does it to everybody else. Why can’t I do it to him?”

With Keselowski on probation from a run-in with Carl Edwards last month, there was little chance of a post-race confrontation that the crowd was clearly expecting, as Busch did his celebratory burnouts to a chorus of boos from the fans.

Keselowski showed little emotion as he emerged from his battered machine, keenly aware that his probationary status means he is racing with a target on his back

“Early in the race, I had the lead on a restart and he ran me up the track in (Turns) 3 and 4 and I lifted, gave him the lane there when I didn’t have too.  Just being a good guy, because I’m a member of the good guy club,” said Keselowski. “It is what it is.  We'll go to work and work on beating his ass.

“I’m on probation for racing hard and that allows everyone to intentionally wreck me. The fans saw what happened.  He’ll get his.”

Keselowski held the lead for 57 laps before Busch moved into second place with 50 laps to go and got into a side-by-side brawl for the top spot.

After 10 laps, Busch finally slid up in front of Keselowski and just clipped the front of the no. 22 Dodge, causing Busch to smack the outside wall.

Busch came right back as they went through turn four, getting inside of Keselowski and turning him around right at the start-finish line, causing heavy damage to the left side of Keselowski’s car.

Busch restarted at the front of the pack with 25 laps to go, followed by Joey Logano, Earnhardt, Jr. and Leffler with Keselowski back in 18th.

Just two laps later Logano got spun racing Earnhardt, Jr. for second, collecting Clint Bowyer and again, Keselowski.

Another late caution set up a 10-lap sprint to the finish with Sadler and Leffler knifing for position behind Busch with Leffler finally taking the position, but not soon enough to catch Busch, who pulled out to a half-straightaway lead to the finish.

Busch’s run-in with Keselowski overshadowed his bid to become the first driver to sweep all three series’ events. Busch came close at this same race a year ago – winning in the trucks and Cup events - but stumbled in the Nationwide race, finishing 28th.

It’s going to be difficult…it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity as we’ve seen,” said Busch. “I haven’t been able to get it done yet. I’ve been close a few times, but it seems like the last one is always the hardest one to get. You never know what happens.

“It’s 500 laps of racing at Bristol under the lights so we could have something bad happen early on and be done right there.”

Results

FIN	ST	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	PTS/BNS	LAPS	STATUS
1	3	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	Z-Line Designs	195/10	250	Running
2	6	10	Jason Leffler	Toyota	Fraternal Order of Eagles	170/0	250	Running
3	1	33	Elliott Sadler	Chevrolet	Rheem Heating & Air Conditioning	170/5	250	Running
4	34	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	Realtree Outfitters	160/0	250	Running
5	10	60	Carl Edwards	Ford	Fastenal	160/5	250	Running
6	17	99	Trevor Bayne	Toyota	Out! Pet Care	150/0	250	Running
7	8	21	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	Zaxby's	151/5	250	Running
8	11	32	Reed Sorenson	Toyota	Dollar General	142/0	250	Running
9	43	42	Parker Kligerman	Dodge	Pelletier Brothers American Loggers	138/0	250	Running
10	2	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	GameStop	139/5	250	Running
11	7	05	Willie Allen	Chevrolet	31-W Insulation	130/0	250	Running
12	18	35	Jason Keller	Chevrolet	TriStar Motorsports	127/0	250	Running
13	14	98	Paul Menard	Ford	Richmond Water Heaters / Menards	124/0	250	Running
14	13	22	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Discount Tire	126/5	250	Running
15	32	7	Josh Wise	Chevrolet	Hot Wheels	118/0	250	Running
16	21	27	Danny O'Quinn Jr.	Ford	Heil Trailer International	115/0	250	Running
17	41	40	Mike Bliss	Chevrolet	Westerman Companies	112/0	250	Running
18	23	15	Michael Annett	Toyota	Pilot Travel Centers	109/0	250	Running
19	36	16	Brian Ickler	Ford	Roush Fenway Racing	106/0	250	Running
20	15	81	Michael McDowell	Dodge	Camrett Logistics	103/0	250	Running
21	25	62	Brendan Gaughan	Toyota	Snap-On Tools	100/0	250	Running
22	31	6	Ricky Stenhouse Jr. *	Ford	CitiFinancial	97/0	250	Running
23	20	104	Jeremy Clements	Chevrolet	Boudreaux's Butt Paste	94/0	250	Running
24	33	70	Shelby Howard	Chevrolet	Foretravel Motorcoach	91/0	250	Running
25	30	11	Brian Scott *	Toyota	AccuDoc Solutions	88/0	249	Running
26	38	34	Tony Raines	Chevrolet	Long John Silver's	85/0	248	Running
27	39	09	John Wes Townley	Ford	Zaxby's Milkshakes	82/0	247	Running
28	40	23	Robert Richardson Jr.	Chevrolet	R3 Motorsports	79/0	247	Running
29	16	28	Kenny Wallace	Chevrolet	Chloe Duyck Foundation	76/0	245	Running
30	5	66	Steve Wallace	Toyota	5-Hour Energy	73/0	244	Running
31	42	01	Mike Wallace	Chevrolet	Smoky Mountain Cheese	70/0	226	Running
32	29	87	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet	AMFMEnergy.com / HeatRedefined.com	67/0	204	Running
33	4	12	Justin Allgaier	Dodge	Verizon Wireless	64/0	187	Accident
34	12	139	Sean Caisse	Ford	Rimz One Wheels Tires Accessories	61/0	155	Accident
35	9	1	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Phoenix Construction	58/0	117	Accident
36	28	49	Mark Green	Chevrolet	FX Network "Sons of Anarchy"	55/0	84	Susp.
37	37	38	Kasey Kahne	Toyota	Great Clips	52/0	81	Accident
38	35	0	Brad Teague	Chevrolet	Roadrunner Markets / Green Acres Lawn Care	49/0	42	Brakes
39	22	73	Derrike Cope	Dodge	Charter	46/0	30	Brakes
40	24	90	Chase Miller	Chevrolet	D'Hondt Humphrey Motorsports	43/0	25	Electrical
41	26	91	David Gilliland	Chevrolet	D'Hondt Humphrey Motorsports	40/0	22	Brakes
42	19	26	Dennis Setzer	Dodge	K-Automotive Motorsports	37/0	6	Brakes
43	27	136	Jeff Green	Chevrolet	Long John Silver's	34/0	4	Brakes