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Edwards Scores Final Turn Bump-And-Run Victory At Richmond

Carl Edwards poses with the winner's decal after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series TOYOTA OWNERS 400 at Richmond International Raceway. [Photo by Daniel Shirey/NASCAR via Getty Images]

Carl Edwards poses with the winner’s decal after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series TOYOTA OWNERS 400 at Richmond International Raceway. [Photo by Daniel Shirey/NASCAR via Getty Images]

By Joe Jennings

Hounding teammate Kyle Busch in the closing laps of the Toyota Owners 400, Carl Edwards caught his teammate in the final turn, bumping him from the lead and racing to his 27th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory. The race took place at the.75-mile Richmond International Raceway.

Edwards, who dominated the early going, led 151 of the 400 laps in the XFINITY Toyota, giving his Joe Gibbs Racing team its fifth victory of the season and its 21st short-track win in the last 41 races.

And Edwards went to victory lane for the second consecutive week.

The winner said, “Going into the last lap (crew chief) Dave Rogers said something on the radio like, ‘Get your butt in gear and go get him,’ so I thought I would drive deep into turn 1 and it looked like Kyle’s car got real slow that last lap as if his tires were shot. Going down the backstretch, I saw him spin the tires, so I decided to go for the bottom and he went down there and parked it. His car got to sliding and I gave him a little tap. I thought it would be a bump and go, but we got the win. We both have wins, so we were just racing hard and having fun. And I didn’t intend to hit him.”

Moving the race to daytime hours proved to be a winner with 23 lead changes with 18 of them on the track, the most in nine years. Overall, there were 2,083 green flag passes during the race.

The disgruntled Busch held on for second place.

“We had a great car and the pit crew got us into position, and I sort of gave it up a little bit at the end. That’s racin’ and we will just have to move on,” he said in a clipped tone of voice.

Jimmie Johnson took third place with teammate Kasey Kahne fourth.

Kevin Harvick, who led 63 laps, finished fifth.

JGR teammates Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth overcame adversity to garner sixth and seventh. Hamlin’s team let a tire get loose during a pit stop, penalizing the Virginia native and Kenseth’s team had to replace a faulty battery.

Rounding out the top-10 finishers were Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch, who led 55 laps and held a formidable lead until the closing laps.

Comeback driver Tony Stewart finished 19th after an up-and-down race. A cut-tire slowed his pace midway through but he persevered for a respectable finish.

Said Stewart, “It was fun and I wish every race at Richmond was a day race.”

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