A Water Bottle Helps Kyle Busch Win the Capital City 400
Kyle Busch has been very successful at Richmond International Raceway. Since 2009, Kyle Busch has 3 wins at Richmond. For Busch, he hasn’t won a race since last Augusts race at Michigan. Fortunately for Rowdy, a water bottle was all he needed to secure the win. Kyle Busch would hold off Dale Earnhardt Jr to win the Capital City 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
Carl Edwards led the majority of the race, but unfortunately for the Roush-Fenway driver, he jumped the restart on lap 319 and that cost him the race. On the restart, NASCAR gave Edwards a black flag after NASCAR officials stated that he jumped the restart, or started ahead of the restart box. He ultimately went a lap down to Stewart. With that late race caution, Edwards received a godsend (by getting his lap back) and went on to finish 10th.
Tony Stewart had a strong run at Richmond. Stewart would lead 118 laps during the race. With the late-race debris caution, Stewart would lose the lead (and the win) after having troubles on pit road. That allowed Dale Earnhardt Jr to slip into the picture. Tony Stewart wound up finishing 3rd.
Dale Earnhardt Jr restarted 3rd, but passed Tony Stewart on the restart and did all he could to catch Kyle Busch. For Junior, he just didn’t have enough brakes and enough time to catch Busch, and he ultimately finished 2nd.
“I don’t know where that last caution came from, but it was our saving grace,” Busch said. “It was a gift. We came down pit road and [crew chief] Dave Rogers and the guys went to work and gave us a great pit stop, got me out front. “That gave me the lead so I could restart the race how I wanted to. That was the win right there.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr told reporters that brake issues all night long was why he couldn’t hang with Rowdy Busch in the end. “We had some brake problems all race long.” Junior stated. “I had a great restart, and I ran really great for one lap, and the pedal went back to the floor. I just had to pump it up all the way down the straightaway and I didn’t have any front brakes getting into the corner, so I couldn’t get in real hard. “It would just get loose locking the rears up. So even with the brakes working, I think the No. 18 [Busch] was just a little bit better than us all night.”
After the race, Stewart was upset that a bad pitstop was the reason he didn’t go to victory lane, but he handled it very well. “When the caution is for a plastic bottle on the backstretch, it’s hard to feel good about losing that one”. Stewart also talked about his pit-road mistakes. “You go back and try to work on it and try to remedy the problem and try and make sure it doesn’t happen again”.
As Busch, Earnhardt Jr, and Stewart finished 1-2-3, Denny Hamlin and Kasey Kahne rounded out the top-5.
For the results of the Capital City 400 at Richmond International Raceway, please go HERE.