Denny Hamlin came on strong at the end of the NASCAR race at Bristol Motor Speedway Saturday night (8/17) to score the win in the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race.

The race at the track called “The Last Great Coliseum” was a true battle from start to finish it seemed. There were 10 drivers that exchanged the lead 23 times. There were eight cautions periods including the end of the first two stages of the race. Kyle Larson won stage one while Kurt Busch was leading at the end of stage two.

Matt DiBenedetto was the leader of the race for more laps than any other driver with a total of 93 of the 500 laps at the front of the pack. Matt has been having a good year and was racing hard to win this race after announcing earlier this year he was looking for a new car to drive next year. He will not be returning as the driver of the #95 Toyota  after this season.

It looked as though Matt would achieve his goal of getting his first win in the cup series as all of his laps led came at the end of the race. However, Denny Hamlin was able to race forward and take the lead from Matt with 12 laps remaining. Denny held that lead to claim his fourth win of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

Matt DiBenedetto was relegated to a second place finish. Brad Keselowski finished third. Kyle Busch took home a fourth place finish with Chase Elliott in fifth place. See the complete results for the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race here.

Kyle Busch sits at the top of the point standings following the race at Bristol. Joey Logano is second in the standings with Denny Hamlin in third place. Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick round out the top five in fourth and fifth place respectively. See the complete 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series point standings here.

The NASCAR Cup Series gets a week off before returning Sunday, September 1st for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

By: Buck Stevens