By: Mitchell Breuer

The NASCAR Cup Series returned to short track racing this week, and for the most part, it delivered a typical race expected from Bristol Motor Speedway.

Brad Keselowski, for the second time in a week, snagged a win in the final moments, and again will have his victory overshadowed by the actions of Chase Elliott.

Elliott and Keselowski’s teammate, Joey Logano, both found themselves out front with five laps to go after the race’s previous leader, Denny Hamlin, had lost the lead and subsequently wrecked causing the final caution. The No. 9 and the No. 22 battled hard with Logano clearing for the lead. However, Elliott did not let him drive away, giving a classic bump, but when he got underneath him in the subsequent corner, his car would get loose and slide into Logano, effectively taking them both out of contention for the win.

Just like that Elliott’s team was left frustrated and, in a confrontation, again on pit road.

The finish of this race was not the only highlight, though.

The big one returned Sunday after contact from Jimmie Johnson sent Ricky Stenhouse Jr spinning into the inside wall and bouncing back up into traffic into Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, Kurt Busch, and Cole Custer. The wreck ended several of the drivers’ day, including Stenhouse, who placed 34th, his fourth finish of 24th or worse in the last five races. Others were able to rebound, as Kurt Busch came back for a seventh-place finish, his third top-10 in a row.

Attrition, even outside of the big wreck, was a big factor in this race with 11 cars failing to finish.Among those was Ryan Blaney, who led 60 laps on the day, went for a spin. It appeared for a brief moment he was going to be safe from too much damage, but that hope was quickly thrown away as Ty Dillon smashed into him and ended both of their days. The accident reminded many of Blaney’s end result in the 2018 spring Bristol race, where he was involved in an accident after leading several laps.

On the opposite side of things, there were several drivers who took advantage of the attrition taking place. Front Row Motorsports drivers, John Hunter Nemechek (13th) and Michael McDowell (14th) both placed inside the top-15. Bubba Wallace (tenth), after two finishes of 38th and 37th at Charlotte Motor Speedway, grabbed his second top-10 of the season, which is more than what the No. 43 team had all last year.Austin Dillon (sixth) and Christopher Bell (ninth), both grabbed their second consecutive top-10’s.

The driver that may have benefited the most though was Clint Bowyer, who restarted fifth on the final restart of the race, avoided the mealy between Elliott and Logano, and moved up to second, which was where his No. 14 team ended up finishing. The result will end up being the team’s first top-five finish since Phoenix.

EMAIL MITCHELL AT Mitchell.Breuer@popularspeed.com

Twitter: @MitchellB66

The thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of PopularSpeed.com, its owners, management or other contributors. Any links contained in this article should not be considered an endorsement.