RacinToday.com

Kyle Busch took the lead with 21 laps to go on a restart and held it the rest of the way to win Friday night’s NASCAR Nationwide Series Lipton Tea 250 at Richmond International Raceway.

The victory allowed Busch to pad his points lead over Carl Edwards, who finished second at Richmond.

Busch’s lead is now 82 points – far from secure but enough to put a smile on his face.

“Yeah, Nationwide is great, but we’ve got to win the championship (in Sprint Cup),” he said. “We want to win the championship here of course, too.  We want to win both of them, too.  To come out of here with the Sprint Cup title would be awesome. We’re championship form we’ve just got to keep digging.”

Busch entered last year’s Chase in the Cup series with momentum and points, but then the digging ran into trouble. So he knows what can happen to point leads.

Matt Kenseth was third and Brad Keselowski, who won last weekend’s Sprint Cup race at Talladega, was fourth.

Busch’s victory was due in large part to execute on restarts, which were numerous in the late going Friday.

His final pass for the lead came on a restart, as a matter of fact. It came against Edwards.

“He (Edwards) didn’t come up through the gears very well for some reason,” Busch said. “I faked low and went to the outside and just drove around him on the high-side. “He gave me the space and I gave him some space so we could race clean and we made it around him and that was pretty much it.” 

Edwards simply said, “He smoked me on the restarts.”

Kevin Harvick was fifth and Joey Logano was sixth.

                                                                        —

Unofficial results of the Lipton 250 Nationwide Series race at Richmond International Raceway Friday:

1. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota

2. Carl Edwards, No 60 Ford

3. Matt Kenseth, No. 16 Ford

4. Brad Keselowski, No. 88 Chevrolet

5. Kevin Harvick, No. 33 Chevrolet

6. Joey Logano, No. 20 Toyota

7. Mark Martin, No. 5 Chevrolet

8. Michael McDowell, No. 47 Toyota

9. Jason Keller, No. 27 Ford

10. Jason Leffler, No. 38 Toyota

11. Steve Wallace, No. 66 Chevrolet

12. Erik Darnell, No. 6 Ford

13. Shelby Howard, No. 70 Chevrolet

14. David Green, No. 07 Toyota

15. Tony Raines, No. 234 Chevrolet

16. Scott Wimmer, No. 4 Chevrolet

17. Scott Lagasse Jr., No. 11 Toyota

18. Joe Nemechek, No. 87 Chevrolet

19. Peyton Sellers, No. 177 Chevrolet

20. Danny O’Quinn Jr., No. 01 Chevrolet

21. Brian Keselowski, No. 26 Dodge

22. Derrike Cope, No. 173 Dodge

23. Kenny Wallace, No. 28 Chevrolet

24. D.J. Kennington, No. 81 Dodge

25. Casey Atwood, No. 05 Chevrolet

26. Brendan Gaughan, No. 62 Chevrolet

27. Scott Speed, No. 99 Toyota

28. Burney Lamar, No. 32 Toyota

29. Marc Davis, No. 136 Toyota

30. Brandon Whitt, No. 61 Ford

31. Jeff Burton No. 20 Chevrolet

32. Brian Scott, No. 10 Toyota

33. Mike Bliss, No. 1 Chevrolet

34. Michael Annett, No. 15 Toyota

35. Ken Butler III, No. 23 Chevrolet

36. Morgan Shepherd, No. 89 Chevrolet

37. Benny Gordon, No. 172 Ford

38. Justin Allgaier, No. 12 Dodge

39. Eric McClure, No 24 Ford

40. Mark Green, No. 0 Chevrolet

41. Terry Cook, No. 91 Chevrolet

42. Kertus Davis, No. 49 Chevrolet

43. Johnny Chapman, No. 90 Chevrolet

No Comment