By Ryan - Posted on May 5, 2010
Starting from the pole and leading more than half the race does not always guarantee a win in NASCAR. However, combined with a surge to the front on a restart with five laps left allowed Kyle Busch to hold off Jeff Gordon for the win in the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
The frustration continued for Jeff Gordon, who has been so close to a win all season, only to come up short at the end. His second place finish marked the eighth time he has finished as the runner-up since he last won 39 races ago at Texas Motor Speedway.
His car was definitely strong, as he led 144 laps on Saturday night. "I've been doing this long enough to know they don't give out trophies for leading any lap other than the last one," said Gordon. “it's a little disappointing that we haven't won some races yet, but if we keep doing this, those will come. We've got to keep putting ourselves in position."
To say that Kyle Busch was dominant early in the race would be an understatement. He led 221 of the first 229 laps, and lapping all but seven other cars. A caution evened up the field, giving many cars the “wave-around”. Jeff Burton took the lead on lap 230 for 20 laps, only to be passed by Jeff Gordon, whose car seemed to be best on long green-flag runs.
The race was very fast in the beginning, with only three cautions in the first 364 laps. As the laps wound down drivers became more aggressive, there were three cautions in the final 36 laps. Sam Hornish brought out the last caution with a spin. At the restart, Gordon was on the inside and Busch was on the outside.
"I don't even remember what just happened," Busch said. "I drove it down into Turn 1 and hoped it stuck. I knew I had to baby it into Turn 3 and finally got to clear Jeff. We set sail there from there."
This win marked Kyle Busch’s 17th victory in the Cup Series. Short tracks seem to be a strength for the cars in the Joe Gibbs Racing stable; JGR drivers have won six of the last seven short track races.
"It stinks to not win every single weekend or not every 21 weekends or 21 races," Busch said. "But it certainly feels nice to come out here with another good win and get another good finish."
At Richmond, Kevin Harvick finished third, which was enough to catapult him past Jimmie Johnson in the overall points lead. Jeff Burton finished fourth, and Carl Edwards was fifth. Juan Montoya, Martin Truex, Jr., Ryan Newman, Marcos Ambrose, and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top 10.
