Late caution helps Kyle Busch win fourth race at Richmond

RICHMOND, Va. -- The Kyle Busch slump is over. After only one top-five finish in the NASCAR season's first eight races, the Toyota driver became Richmond International Raceway's active leader in victories with his fourth in Saturday night's Capital City 400.

He couldn't have done it without a late caution flag, for debris on the back straight, and a pit stop that was faster than Tony Stewart's.

"It was a gift, you know," Busch said. "Man, I just don't know where it came from, or what it was. We came down pit road, and (crew chief) Dave Rogers and the crew gave me a great pit stop and the position that led to the win.

"Stewart was phenomenal, and he deserved to win the race. I can't say enough about us getting a lucky break."

Stewart said the late caution flag came as a result of a plastic bottle on the .75-mile track's back straight.

"So tell me how you'd feel," he said.

Busch began the Sprint Cup season's ninth race as one of five drivers with three victories at the track that has been hosting races at NASCAR's premier level since 1953. The other drivers with three Richmond victories are Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Terry Labonte, who is still technically active but hasn't competed at RIR since 2010. Earnhardt finished second and Stewart third Saturday.

The victory was Busch's first of the season. A night earlier, brother Kurt Busch drove a car Kyle owned to victory in the track's Nationwide Series event.

The second half of the race Saturday developed into what would have been a familiar scene in 2011, except that it was Carl Edwards leading and Stewart in pursuit. Kyle Busch and Johnson remained in striking range.

As of lap 251, when Stewart took the lead for the first time, Edwards suddenly seemed mortal. Busch and Johnson quickly followed Stewart past the dominant force in the race to that point. Edwards had led 221 of the previous 222 laps.

Stewart's tenure at the front was also short-lived, as Busch's Toyota slipped past on the back straight of lap 285. Two laps later, Johnson's Chevy relegated Stewart's to third.

Deeper in the pack, Greg Biffle had managed to get back on the lead lap, and the runner-up in points entering the race, Martin Truex Jr., was languishing in 19th, one position ahead of Biffle, as the race reached the three-quarter mark. Biffle wound up finishing 18th while Truex settled for 25th.

But Stewart's No. 14 knifed back into the lead, passing Busch on the 305th lap.

Jeff Burton's Chevy scraped the wall to bring out a caution flag that scrambled the standings a bit at lap 311. NASCAR officials nailed Johnson's crew for a pit-road violation, dropping him to the back of the pack for the restart.

Meanwhile, 10 cars picked up laps via NASCAR's charity program, aka the "wave-around."

Edwards found himself in the lead but was penalized for jumping the restart.

Crew chief Bob Osborne protested vigorously but the call stood and Stewart inherited the lead again at lap 322.

"It takes a little bit to explain," Edwards said. "NASCAR told me about three seconds before the start that I was the leader. I got the best start I could. Tony spun his tires. I don't think it's right. I don't agree with it, but before I get myself in trouble, I'd like to go talk to them (NASCAR officials)."

Pole winner Mark Martin pulled out to a comfortable lead at the outset, his Toyota outrunning the Chevy of Kevin Harvick, the Toyota of Kyle Busch and the Ford of Carl Edwards, who started alongside him on the front row.

By lap 25, Edwards had moved back up to second and was closing on Martin, whom he passed on lap 30. Martin's No. 55 had fallen to sixth by the time a precautionary yellow flag waved at the end of 51 laps.

Jeff Gordon, already struggling, limped to the pits on lap 59 with a flat tire that cost him two laps.

Notable among the upwardly mobile were Stewart, fourth after 100 laps despite starting 22nd, and Johnson, who was running sixth after starting 27th. A Kurt Busch spin brought out a second caution flag on lap 116.

The race's one constant during the first half was Edwards, who maintained a stable advantage while drivers rose and fell behind him. Hamlin, who seemed to be his most reliable pursuer, dropped back to eighth as the halfway point neared.

After a brief though spirited duel, Stewart stormed past Busch to take second place on lap 176. That skirmish enabled Edwards to stretch his lead to more than two seconds for the first time.

Earnhardt collected his fifth consecutive top-10 finish and pulled to within five points of Biffle in the season standings.

"We outran some guys who were faster than us all night long at the end," Earnhardt said. "We were maybe a fifth-place car, and I'm happy to come up with a runner-up finish."