FORT WORTH, Texas — Kyle Busch’s return to Victory Lane just 10 races after his last win seemed to take much longer. There were all those runner-up finishes in between, one in particular.

A runner-up finish in the 2017 season finale kept Busch from winning another NASCAR Cup Series championship, something he had to contemplate the entire offseason. Then he had three runner-up finishes in the first six races this year, including two that Kevin Harvick won.

Kyle Busch celebrates after winning Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race in Fort Worth, Texas. It was only the 10th race since his last victory, but he'd had a lot of close calls since. Associated Press/Larry Papke

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What: Food City 500

When: 2 p.m. Sunday

Where: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway

Television: FOX

On Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, points leader Busch finished ahead of Harvick and the rest of the field for Joe Gibbs Racing’s first win this season.

“Certainly being that close, it gets a little old a little faster,” Busch said. “If you’re finishing fifth or 10th or whatever, and you’re just not capable of winning, it certainly will draw longer as well too. … Being as close as you are, that kind hurts a little bit more, especially that final one, that Homestead one.”

Busch stayed in front of Harvick the last 24 laps after the final restart, getting his third win at Texas and the 44th of his career. The No. 18 Toyota led 116 of the 334 laps at the 11/2-mile track.

“They were probably just a tick faster overall, but I just had to make sure to do everything I could to hit all my marks and everything to focus on making sure that I did the right things to block his air a little bit,” Busch said.

Jamie McMurray finished third, ahead of Erik Jones. Ryan Blaney was fifth a day after winning the Xfinity Series race.

Since finishing 25th in the season opener at Daytona, Busch has been in the top seven the last six races.

“We’ve just been on a roll of finishing really good and getting really pumped and excited about that and the momentum we were able to carry, but frustrated at the same time trying to get to Victory Lane,” he said.

Harvick, who won at Texas in November, led 87 of the first 129 laps and won the first stage. But he had issues on pit road, including a strange incident during a caution when a lug nut popped loose and into the jack. He dropped from first to ninth on that stop, then had to come back in a few laps later because of a loose wheel.

There was another stop when Harvick, who dropped back as far as 27th place and a lap behind the leader, got a penalty for an extra man over the wall when a tire got loose in the pit.

“We did overcome a lot. … We had a pathetic day on pit road, two days on pit road, because of pit guns,” Harvick said. “When you have a pit gun problem like we have multiple times and been able to overcome it and then today we couldn’t overcome it. Time after time you can’t get the lug nuts tight because the pit guns don’t work.”

Harvick and reigning Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. had won the previous eight Cup races on 11/2-mile tracks.

But Truex wasn’t even around for the finish of this one. The first 85-lap stage ended under caution after a front right tire blew on his No. 78 Toyota, which shot up the track and slammed hard into the outer wall. Truex, second to Harvick at the time, finished last in the 37-car field.

Kurt Busch, the pole sitter, finished seventh. Stewart-Haas Racing had the top three starters in a race for the first time with Harvick, Busch and Clint Bowyer, and all placed their Fords in the top 10. Bowyer, coming off a win two weeks ago at Martinsville to end his 190-race winless streak, was ninth.

Jimmie Johnson’s career-long winless streak reached 30 races after the seven-time Cup Series champion was taken out in a seven-car incident.

FORMULA ONE: Sebastian Vettel just held on to win a dramatic Bahrain Grand Prix from pole position, and his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen accidentally broke a team mechanic’s leg after a botched tire change cost him a podium spot.

Lewis Hamilton profited from Ferrari’s mishap to finish third behind his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.

Both Red Bulls failed, with Max Verstappen retiring moments after Daniel Ricciardo, helping Hamilton win after starting ninth on the grid.

Ferrari botched Raikkonen’s second tire change. A rear wheel was not fitted properly and, in his haste to get back into the race, Raikkonen’s car ran over and broke a mechanic’s left leg.

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