How did the whole “Bounty” thing begin?
Kyle Busch was so dominant whenever he raced on the Truck series, winning all seven of his previous starts, Kevin Harvick announced on February 22 that he will “put up a $50,000 bounty for any full-time cup driver who races a truck and can beat Kyle Busch in his next 4 races” through a tweet.
I like this so let’s make this fun. I’ll put up a $50,000 bounty for any full time cup driver who races a truck and can beat @KyleBusch in his next 4 races. #gameon https://t.co/BRjLCTxFJQ
— Kevin Harvick (@KevinHarvick) February 22, 2020
Marcus Lemonis, chairman and CEO of the series sponsor, doubled the price of the bounty to make it $100,000. And in case nobody won against Busch during the aforementioned period, the bounty money would go to Bundle of Joy Fund.
At the first opportunity after the series resumed after the halt due to pandemic, Chase Elliott joined the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in which Busch was about to race. He even tweeted hinting that he would win the race and tagged both Harvick and Lemonis in his tweet.
I’ll be running the @NASCAR_Trucks race Tuesday night for @GMSRacingLLC in the @iRacing @chevrolet. You have that check book ready @KevinHarvick/@marcuslemonis?!? pic.twitter.com/3Ynj2YugHG
— Chase Elliott (@chaseelliott) May 22, 2020
Coincidentally, Busch wrecked Elliott at Toyota 500 in the Darlington Raceway six days prior to the race. After winning the North Carolina Education Lottery 200, Elliott went on to mock Busch by imitating his celebration victory.
So, the “bounty” thing had everything that a good story has to offer; a challenge (from Harvick and Lemonis), a seemingly undefeatable antagonist (Kyle Busch) and the protagonist who finally takes his revenge (Chase Elliott).
Now, with Elliott deciding to put the money to good use, the story has a sweet ending too.
[Read More: Kyle Busch reacts to Chase Elliott’s plan for the bounty money]
Any race fan that watched that race knows Kyle let Chase win. Kyle run him down in 2 laps and even pulled along side of him and then backed off so he could win. PROVE ME WRONG