Kurt Busch ended his 35 race winless streak in style as he clinched a spot in the Chase by winning at Richmond Motor Speedway.
He led 291 of the 400 laps and outlasted teammate and defending Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick.
The race was postponed from last night until today due to heavy rain fall that fell throughout the day on Saturday and well into the night. Teams mentally and physically prepared their cars for the race to be run today, instead of their night race package set ups.
Today’s race looked a lot like Friday’s Xfinity race as Denny Hamlin led 248 of 250 laps, and only gave up the lead during green flag pit stops. Today, there were green flag lead changes, but only two. One was when Busch passed Joey Logano after 94 laps and when Jamie McMurray passed Busch after 262 laps. Busch regained the lead under caution and never gave it away.
Kurt who missed the first three races of the season, due to a legal matter involving domestic violence against his wife (charges have since been dropped), won for the 26th time of his career.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling when you pull deep from within and 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,” said Busch. He was reinstated after a three race suspension after a district attorney in Delaware declined to press charges.
Jimmie Johnson, who had a bad qualifying, rallied from 36th to finish third. McMurray finished fourth and pole sitter Joey Logano finished fifth.
Rookie Chase Elliott, making only his second start on the Sprint Cup circuit, finished 16th.
McMurray took the lead during a series of green flag pit stops. A caution came out on lap 270, only three cars were still on the lead lap, including Busch who had just pitted. Busch stayed out, regained the lead, and slowly got away from Justin Allgaier.
Denny Hamlin, who won the Xfinity race, usually fares well at Richmond but had a disappointing day. Hamlin, who grew up 20 miles from the track, went a lap down to finish 22nd.
This is the second straight week that weather has effected a NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Unlike last week at Bristol, NASCAR could not get the race started on the scheduled day.
Before the race, NASCAR had a moment of silence for recently deceased Sprint Cup reporter Steve Byrnes, who sadly lost his fight with cancer earlier this week. The Steve Byrnes Fund has since been opened for those who would like to donate.
