Photo Credit: Ed Coombs/Speedwaymedia.com
The “bump and run” is a move that is extremely popular in all forms of racing, especially on short tracks. There is an art to it and it requires a certain level of skill to do it properly without “dumping” the car in front.
Kyle Busch has proven that he is highly skilled at the bump and run, and he proved once again on Monday in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. When implemented properly and at just the right time, it can provide tremendous rewards such as this week as Busch used it to perfection against Kyle Larson to find victory lane once again at Bristol.
The key to success for this age old move to not do it too early or too late and to be sure one does not spin the car in front resulting in taking ones self out. A big concern for this move is retaliation. If the move is carried out too early, the “victim” could have time to return the favor. When this happens a driver would have no right to be upset at the driver implementing the payback. We have, however, seen this time and time again – a driver bumps a driver to pass, but gets bumped back a few laps later only to get mad and ready to fight.
A true racer knows, most drivers will race you like you race them. Busch knows if Larson had gotten the chance, he would have employed the same move on him as he had utilized earlier to take the lead. And, if so, that would have been okay.
“I knew it was a little early ‘cause you tend to try to want to think about saving that bump and run deal for the last lap, but I just took my chance with it and if he got back to my rear bumper, then so be it. I think that’s fair game and being able to race that way. Fortunately, I was able to run away from him and he couldn’t get back to me”, said Busch in the post-race interview.
With several laps remaining after losing the lead, Larson was definitely thinking about having the opportunity to move Busch out of the way, but knew he would need some help from lapped cars to get his chance. “I knew it would be hard to get back to him. I knew I would need a lapper to kind of hold him up on exit and kill his momentum to allow me to maybe get back to his bumper, but there just weren’t a whole lot of cars left out there.”
The question now is, if given the chance, will Larson utilize the bump and run on Busch at Richmond and will Busch still feel the same as he does now?
