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Kyle Busch Thrills Crowd At Richmond

Richmond, Va. – On the eve of his 25th birthday, Kyle Busch gifted himself and the near-capacity crowd at the Richmond International Raceway on Saturday evening with a come-from-behind victory over Jeff Gordon in the Crown Royal 400, the 10th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in 2010.

For Busch, he won his second consecutive spring race at Richmond. Also, he won for the 17th time in his relatively short Sprint Cup career. He also gave Toyota its third straight victory at Richmond and for his Joe Gibbs Racing team, its sixth win on the .75-mile oval.

“I don’t know how I passed him (Gordon) for the win; I don’t even remember doing it,” Busch said of his late-race triumph in the M&M’s Toyota. “I just drove it hard into turn 1 and it stuck. I got a major drive going, got to the bottom and set sail.”

His winning pass came five laps from the end of the 400-lap race.

Crew chief Dave Rogers won for the first time with Busch, which pleased the winning driver. “It was great for Dave (Rogers) to win for the first time. A lot of people doubted the (hiring) decision, but I didn’t.”

Said Rogers, “Our car started out strong, but I got behind on adjustments. We finally caught up and with Kyle (Busch) driving, we know we can do well. This was a character-building race for us.”

Owner Joe Gibbs said the victory was important as many sponsor representatives were on hand. He added, “Kyle has been real patient this year, and I we hope we get on a roll again.”

The youngest Busch and Gordon had the dominant cars throughout the race and between them they led 370 of the 400 laps with Busch topping the list with 226.

Until a series of late-race caution flags, Gordon looked set to break his 38-race winless streak but had to settle for second place.

“My car wasn’t good on restarts, and Kyle (Busch) was really good,” Gordon said. “We came out second and I am just a little disappointed that we came up short. The track got really slick on long runs, and I don’t know how I was leading it.”

Addressing the late-race action, Gordon stated, “I was thinking that I didn’t want to have to race Kyle (Busch) on restarts, as my car was so loose, and he was so good.”

Kevin Harvick persevered to finish an impressive third in a Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, posting his 12th top-10 finish in 19 races at Richmond.

Said Harvick, “We had a good shot at the end, but the No. 18 (Busch) could run on the outside where no one else could.”

As the race wound down, Harvick and Gordon waged a heated dual for the second spot with the latter prevailing. “I wasn’t going to do anything silly,” Harvick stated. Jeff Burton raced another RCR Chevrolet into fourth place after running at or near the front of the field much of the race.

Fifth place went to Carl Edwards, who came from 28th in a Ford. He also led once for the first time in 2010.

Juan Pablo Montoya came in sixth with Martin Truex Jr. seventh. Ryan Newman, Marcos Ambrose and Johnson rounded out the top-10 finishers.

Other notables in the finishing order were Denny Hamlin 11th, Tony Stewart 23rd, Mark Martin 25th and Dale Earnhardt Jr. 32nd.

In the point standings, Harvick tops the list with 1,467, Johnson is second with 1,457 and Busch gained two positions for third with 1,358. Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Gordon, Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Burton and Mark Martin complete the top 10.

Edwards and Clint Bowyer are 11th and 12th and Earnhardt dropped five spots to 13th.

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