NASCAR Cup Series: 2018 Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond results – Kyle Busch three-peats

For the third straight NASCAR Cup Series race, Kyle Busch took the checkered flag ahead of the rest of the field, and he did so in the 2018 Toyota Owners 400.

Kyle Busch had an abysmal qualifying effort on Friday night for tonight’s Toyota Owners 400, the ninth race on the 36-race 2018 NASCAR Cup Series schedule and the first of two races at Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia this season.

Busch qualified in 32nd place in his #18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, and in his 45 previous Cup Series victories, he had never won a race after starting from that far back. However, that changed on Saturday night in his 46th career Cup Series victory.

Busch claimed his third consecutive victory after holding off several hungry drivers on several restarts late in the race after the majority of the race had gone smoothly without any on-track incidents. He only led 32 of the race’s 402 laps around the four-turn, 0.75-mile oval, but he led the one that counted the most.

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Through nine races so far this season, Busch has now become the second driver to win three races in a row. Kevin Harvick won in Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix earlier in the season. This is the first time ever that two drivers have won three races in a row through nine races in a Cup Series season.

Chase Elliott finished right behind Busch in 2nd place as the top Chevrolet finisher in his #9 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. Behind him in 3rd was Busch’s teammate Denny Hamlin in his #11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and the top Ford finisher of Joey Logano in 4th in his #22 Ford for Team Penske.

The race featured 16 lead changes among seven different leaders. Aside of Busch, six other drivers led at least one lap of the race. Those drivers were Hamlin, Logano, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch and polesitter Martin Truex Jr., who led the most laps with 121 laps led but finished all the way back in 14th place after a disastrous final pit stop.

The race also featured a total of six caution flag periods for 46 laps, with two of those caution flag periods occurring at the end of the race’s first two stages, which were both won by Logano. The first incident-related caution flag of the race came out on lap 354 when Ryan Blaney, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Cole Whitt were involved in an accident in turn four.

The second incident-related caution flag of the race came out on lap 368 when contact between Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray in turn two caused Ryan Newman to run into the back of McMurray coming off of turn two, which ended up causing Newman’s car to start smoking.

The third incident-related caution flag of the race came out on lap 390 when David Ragan spun in turn three, and the fourth and final incident-related caution flag of the race came out on lap 396 for debris in turn three after Stenhouse Jr. hit the wall.

Here are the full race results of the 2018 Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway.

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Be sure to tune in to Fox next Sunday, April 29th at 2:00 pm ET to watch the live broadcast of the 10th race of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season, which is the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama.