Kyle Busch Steals a Nationwide Win From Edwards in the Virginia 529 College Savings 300

The Virginia 529 College Savings 250 at Richmond International Raceway Friday night was pretty much Carl Edwards’ for the taking, after dominating most of the race. The fateful blow came when Edwards lost three positions during the final round of pit stops under caution.

Ted Seminara

Kyle Busch won his 51^stNationwide race of his career, his eighth this season in 19 starts by edging Edwards out at the finish line by just .696 seconds., followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Truex and Kenny Wallace rounding out the Top-five.

“Carl was certainly really, really god there, and I thought at first we were probably a third- or fourth-place car, and then kind of worked on it and made it a second- or third-place car,” Busch said. “We were keeping up with Carl, and then, on that final pit stop, my guys really put the pressure on, knowing how quick they’d been on pit road all night — and they did it once again.

“We were able to get off first, and I think Carl came off fourth, so when we had the restart there, he got mired up in traffic there, and that gave us some room to get out … [crew chief] Jason [Ratcliff] and these guys made some awesome adjustments all night, making the car a little bit better — just be able to make it a little more drivable. Every run we got closer, and then, there on that last run, we had track position and a good car.”

The battle between Edwards and Busch started on lap three as the two battled for second place behind race leader Brad Keselowski. By lap seven Edwards took over the lead and left the other drivers in his dust.

The first caution flew at lap 65 after Black Koch spun on the frontstretch after a nudge from Aric Amirola. Edwards resumed his lead on lap 79 as the green flag restarted the race. Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Trevor Bayne and Steve Wallace rolled out 2^nd through fifth respectively.

The second caution waved on the very same lap of the restart as Keselowski brushed the wall, followed by a crash in turns three and four between Kevin Harvick and Jason Leffler.

Busch took the lead coming off pit road on lap 85 with Edwards behind in second place. Edwards took back his lead position on lap 87. Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne takes the second position from Busch on lap 114 and has his sights on Edwards.

The yellow flag flew for the third time after Danica Patrick locked up her breaks heading into turn three and spinning Keselowski in the process. The race restarted on lap 143 only to have the caution flag thrown again on the same lap for the second time in the race after Brian Scott and Michael Annett crash in turns three and four. Scott’s car was turned by Amirola, who proved to be none to pleased and attempted to make his way towards Amirola’s car before being retained by a NASCAR official.

Busch retook the lead off of pit road on lap 153, followed once again by a second place Edwards. Just six laps later the yellow flag flew for the fifth time after Eric McClure hot the wall. Busch reigned supreme by taking the lead from Edwards once again on lap 170 but Edwards would not go quietly and reclaimed his number one spot on lap 175.

Kevin Harvick slammed Tevor Bayne, crashing him on the backstretch bring out the race’s sixth caution on lap 209. Busch once again exited pit road in the lead on lap 220, Edwards however exits fourth behind Stenhouse Jr. and Truex. With just 30 laps to go, Edwards would have to give it everything he got to try to regain his lead.

Edwards’ hard charge looked promising as he moved into the top three by lap 226. By lap 235, he dove under Stenhouse Jr. in turn two to move into the second position. It looked as if Edwards would catch Busch as the margin between them whittled down to about eighth tenth of a second by lap 239, but in the end Edwards’ car would not sustain the power to propel him to the finish line first.

Busch celebrated in victory lane, scoring his 51^st Nationwide Series win, extending the driver’s own record for the most in the division’s history. All eyes should be on Busch for the Sprint Cup race Saturday night. He won it last year and is a favorite to sweep the weekend at RIR.

Unofficial Race Results
Virginia 529 College Savings 250, Richmond International Raceway
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/n2s/race.php?race=27
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Pos.		No.	Driver	Make	Points
=========================================
1	3	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	0
2	2	60	Carl Edwards	Ford	0
3	6	6	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	41
4	10	20	Ryan Truex *	Toyota	40
5	5	9	Kenny Wallace	Toyota	39
6	8	2	Elliott Sadler	Chevrolet	38
7	16	88	Aric Almirola	Chevrolet	37
8	17	32	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	36
9	22	31	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	35
10	15	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	34
11	26	62	Michael Annett	Toyota	33
12	18	19	Mike Bliss	Chevrolet	32
13	14	70	David Stremme	Chevrolet	0
14	28	51	Jeremy Clements	Chevrolet	31
15	24	1	Mike Wallace	Chevrolet	29
16	7	66	Steve Wallace	Toyota	28
17	38	15	Timmy Hill *	Ford	27
18	32	7	Danica Patrick	Chevrolet	26
19	1	22	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	0
20	13	33	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	0
21	37	28	Derrike Cope	Chevrolet	23
22	39	23	Robert Richardson Jr.	Chevrolet	22
23	40	52	Kevin Lepage	Chevrolet	21
24	41	89	Morgan Shepherd	Chevrolet	20
25	42	39	Luis Martinez Jr.	Ford	19
26	27	30	Ricky Carmichael	Chevrolet	0
27	35	81	Blake Koch *	Dodge	17
28	4	16	Trevor Bayne	Ford	16
29	11	38	Jason Leffler	Chevrolet	15
30	20	14	Eric McClure	Chevrolet	14
31	9	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	0
32	12	11	Brian Scott	Toyota	12
33	21	40	Josh Wise	Chevrolet	11
34	25	141	Johnny Chapman	Chevrolet	10
35	30	171	Matthew Carter	Ford	9
36	23	44	Jeff Green	Chevrolet	8
37	36	175	Carl Long	Ford	7
38	43	142	Tim Andrews	Chevrolet	6
39	34	248	Dennis Setzer	Chevrolet	5
40	19	49	Mark Green	Chevrolet	4
41	31	103	Scott Riggs	Chevrolet	3
42	33	146	Chase Miller	Chevrolet	2
43	29	147	Brian Keselowski	Chevrolet	0