Kurt Busch dominates to win postponed race at Richmond, seals Chase berth
April 26, 2015
By Chris Knight
NASCAR Wire Service
RICHMOND, Va. – Suspension to redemption.
After
being suspended for three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races earlier this
season after an alleged domestic violence incident, Kurt Busch won
Sunday’s postponed Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway
in a dominating performance, virtually locking up a spot in this year’s
Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
“It’s
an incredible feeling,” said Busch, who was reinstated March 11 and
granted a waiver into the Chase. “It’s a total team effort. And the way
that everything came together, it just seemed like we were building,
building and building towards a great finish like this.
“I
have this opportunity because of Gene Haas and everybody that’s a part
of our family at Stewart-Haas. It’s an unbelievable feeling when you
pull deep from within, you go through troubles and you know when you’re
accused of something and things go sideways. Your personal life doesn’t
need to affect your business life and I’m here in Victory Lane. It feels
great to do it at Richmond.”
Pole
sitter Joey Logano led the first 50 laps of the race, until the
scheduled competition caution waved allowing teams the opportunity to
pit for fuel, tires and adjustments. The top 10 left pit road as they
entered, but Jamie McMurray had to come down pit road a second time
after being informed his team left lug nuts loose.
Logano
led the field back to green and maintained the race lead through Lap
94, when Kurt Busch challenged and inherited the lead on Lap 95. The
Stewart-Haas Racing driver pulled to an eight-tenths of a second lead by
Lap 100 and extended it until a Lap 127 caution when Joey Gase wrecked
on the backstretch.
Busch
won the race off pit road and controlled the field through the halfway
point with a 0.826 second advantage over Brad Keselowski in second.
Through the long run, McMurray climbed through the field and momentarily
challenged Busch for the top spot on Lap 259, but Busch reasserted
himself a lap later.
McMurray
regained control of the lead a lap later and led until green flag pit
stops began on Lap 263 with McMurray pitting on Lap 265. Meanwhile,
Keselowski stayed out and shuffled into the lead. Nearing the end of
green flag stops, Brett Moffitt made contact with the wall in Turn 4
bringing out the fifth caution of the day, leaving only three cars on
the lead lap.
Keselowski,
Justin Allgaier and Busch all pitted under the yellow, with McMurray
benefiting from the free pass, putting himself back on the lead lap.
Fifteen cars behind them elected to take the wave around, putting 19
cars on the lead lap for the restart.
Busch
checked out on the restart, ahead of Allgaier and Keselowski.
Meanwhile, McMurray had to make another climb back through the field and
made his way to the bumper of Allgaier on Lap 315 for second. Once past
the HScott Motorsports driver, McMurray trailed Busch by more than four
seconds.
With
50 laps to go, McMurray trimmed the lead down to less than three
seconds, but the yellow flag waved a lap later, saving a number of the
front-running teams from making their final planned stop under green.
The
race resumed with 42 laps remaining and unchanged at the front. Two
quick cautions set up for a 26-lap shootout between Busch, McMurray,
Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Logano.
Escaping
the field quickly, Busch checked out, with the battle on for the
runner-up spot. Harvick – aptly nicknamed the “The Closer” – made the
pass on McMurray on Lap 382 and set sights on his Stewart-Haas Racing
teammate for the win.
Harvick
chipped away at his deficit, but the reigning champion was no match for
Busch, putting a period on a stellar performance by claiming his
26th-career Sprint Cup Series victory and second at Richmond. The
36-year old led a race-high 291 of the event’s 400 laps.
“Tony Gibson is an amazing crew chief and I’m glad I’ve got the chance to work with him," Busch said. "We got it done today."
Behind
Busch and Harvick, Johnson was third followed by McMurray, Logano,
Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex
Jr. to round out the top 10.
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