Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race full video highlights from Bristol

Relive all the action from under the lights in Bristol as the 2017 NASCAR regular season gets closer to its conclusion.

There’s nothing quite like the Bristol night race. There’s a reason there used to be a waiting list for tickets, and even though like many other NASCAR races, attendance isn’t quite as strong as it once was, the fans still pack the Last Great Colosseum to see the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers do battle over 500 laps.

Kyle Busch went into this year’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race looking like the man to beat since he breezed to Truck Series and XFINITY Series victories earlier this week. But there were a number of strong cars starting in front of him, led by rookie Erik Jones who led the field to the green flag.

Be sure to bookmark this page and check back throughout the night as we add the latest highlights from the Bristol night race.

One of this year’s championship contenders had some early trouble. Brad Keselowski cut a tire down and lost some laps while getting it changed.

Kyle Larson, who tried early to get the high line going, moved down the track and passed Jones for the lead. His Huggies Little Movers Chevrolet looked like one of the strongest cars on the track in Stage 1, though Kyle Busch was making his way through the field as well.

The closing laps of Stage 1 turned into a titanic battle of the Kyles, with Larson and Busch each switching lanes multiple times and playing a game of cat and mouse between lapped cars.

In the end, Busch prevailed, with Jones sneaking in second right before the green and white checkered flag.

Three was definitely not the lucky number during Stage 2. After Busch got back in front following a brief battle with Jones, things stayed calm for a bit. Then the 3 and the 33 got together.

Kasey Kahne also got some decent-sized right-front damage as he checked up to avoid that incident and ran into Joey Gase.

The ensuing round of pit stops saw several cars stay out while Busch and most of the leaders came to get new tires. The strategy didn’t pay off for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who dropped back big time over the final five laps, but it worked like a charm for Matt Kenseth, who took the Stage 2 win.

The first part of the final stage belonged to Jones. The rookie was able to fend off the hard-charging Busch, who was heard telling his crew on the radio that the 77 was simply a little better than the 18. The NBC announcers also noted that a Jones victory would throw the playoff picture into “complete disarray.”

Ty Dillon and Trevor Bayne both hitting the wall brought out another caution and gave us another restart.

Jones and Larson came out of the pits 1-2, but it was Busch who rocketed to the front in just a few laps. Since it’s Bristol, though, there were more cautions to come. This one came when Chase Elliott got up into Kevin Harvick and took the worst of it.

Jones came out of the round of pit stops in first, and Harvick hopped up into second shortly after the restart. Kenset made his way past Harvick before this happened:

As he had all night, Jones aced the restart and led the way with less than 80 laps to go. But Busch was in hot pursuit.

It became a Toyota party with Busch, Jones and Kenseth battling it out for the lead, and while Busch prevailed, Jones had time to try running him down. The problem? The high groove became the fast one and the 77 worked better on the bottom.

Lapped traffic also came into play in the closing laps, with drivers like Clint Bowyer not giving way for the leaders. In the end, though, Jones didn’t have enough time or speed to run down Busch.

Busch is now the only man to sweep Truck Series, XFINITY Series and Cup Series races in the same weekend, and he’s done it twice. He told the NBC crew after the race that the second triple was harder, and he even busted out the broom for his post-race celebration.