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Busch makes it 4 in a row

Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 12 years, 8 months AGO
| April 29, 2012 9:00 PM

* SPRINT CUP

Kyle Busch capped a perfect weekend Saturday night by winning the Capital City 400 at Richmond, Va., for the fourth consecutive year.

The victory snaps a 22-race winless streak for Busch, and came a day after he went to Victory Lane for the first time as a Nationwide Series team owner. Kurt Busch drove his younger brother's car to its first victory Friday night.

The win also broke a tie between Busch and Richard Petty (1971-73) in consecutive wins in the Richmond spring race.

"Is that some sort of record? I'm hoping it is," Busch said. "It means so much that we're able to come to this place every time and know that we can have a decent car."

As he celebrated his first Sprint Cup Series win of the season, Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards both believed the win was taken from them.

Stewart was upset because a caution for debris - he claimed it was for a bottle of soda or water that wasn't an on-track hindrance - erased his lead with 13 laps remaining. He led the leaders down pit road for a final stop, and Busch beat him back onto the track.

Busch also easily pulled away from Stewart on the restart with nine laps to go, and Stewart was also passed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. to fade to third.

"When the caution is for a plastic bottle on the backstretch, it's hard to feel good losing that one," Stewart said. "And we gave it away on pit road. So, we did everything we could to throw it away, got taken away from us."

Edwards thought the same thing after NASCAR penalized him for jumping the restart with 81 laps remaining.

It capped a confusing sequence in what had been a calm, quiet race through the first 300 laps. But a caution after Jeff Burton hit the wall scrambled everything, and only 15 cars were shown on the lead lap when racing resumed.

Edwards lined up next to Stewart for the restart, and his spotter had told the driver that he was the leader. But NASCAR said Stewart was the leader, and when Edwards sailed past him on the restart, NASCAR threw the black flag.

Edwards questioned the call to crew chief Bob Osborne, and neither seemed to understand why Edwards was penalized. Told by Osborne it was for both passing the leader before the restart, and jumping the restart, Edwards said it was impossible to do both at the same time.

NASCAR eventually clarified that Stewart was the leader, but Edwards left too early.

Edwards, who ultimately finished 10th, watched a replay of the start before going to talk to NASCAR. He insisted his spotter had been told by NASCAR he was restarting the race as the leader.

"I thought NASCAR made a mistake, they lined us up wrong, and I was at a disadvantage being on the outside," Edwards said. "So I thought, 'I'm getting the best start I can get right now.' I got the best start I could get, looks like Tony waited or spun his tires, so they black-flagged me.

"I still don't understand why they black-flagged me."

At Richmond International Raceway

Richmond, Va.

Lap length: .75 miles

(Start position in parentheses)

1. (5) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 400 laps, 133.8 rating, 47 points.

2. (10) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 400, 106.9, 42.

3. (22) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 400, 126, 42.

4. (7) Denny Hamlin, Toy., 400, 111.6, 40.

5. (9) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 400, 109.1, 39.

6. (27) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 400, 104.1, 39.

7. (23) Clint Bowyer, Toy., 400, 97.9, 37.

8. (1) Mark Martin, Toyota, 400, 94.1, 37.

9. (16) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 400, 89.4, 35.

10. (2) Carl Edwards, Ford, 400, 126.4, 36.

11. (24) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 400, 86, 33.

12. (20) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 400, 87.3, 32.

13. (31) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 400, 76.2, 31.

14. (37) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 400, 71.9, 30.

15. (12) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 400, 84.5, 29.

16. (4) A J Allmendinger, Dodge, 400, 94.7, 28.

17. (19) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 400, 74.6, 27.

18. (28) Greg Biffle, Ford, 400, 69.5, 26.

19. (3) Kevin Harvick, Chev., 400, 98.3, 26.

20. (21) Landon Cassill, Toyota, 399, 63.8, 24.

21. (26) Casey Mears, Ford, 399, 56.5, 23.

22. (14) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 399, 70.5, 22.

23. (6) Jeff Gordon, Chev., 399, 63.9, 21.

24. (18) Joey Logano, Toyota, 399, 57.6, 20.

25. (8) Martin Truex Jr., Toy., 399, 75.8, 19.

26. (11) Aric Almirola, Ford, 398, 69.2, 18.

27. (15) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 398, 58.2, 17.

28. (13) Kurt Busch, Chev., 397, 64.1, 16.

29. (17) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 397, 50.6, 15.

30. (29) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 397, 48, 15.

31. (30) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 396, 62.1, 13.

32. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 394, 43.5, 12.

33. (33) David Reutimann, Chevrolet, 394, 40.7, 11.

34. (42) Reed Sorenson, Ford, 392, 37.6, 0.

35. (40) Stephen Leicht, Chevrolet, 391, 33.4, 9.

36. (41) David Gilliland, Ford, 355, 37.4, 8.

37. (34) David Stremme, Toyota, brakes, 139, 33.4, 7.

38. (32) Josh Wise, Ford, accident, 127, 35.7, 6.

39. (25) Michael McDowell, Ford, brakes, 67, 38.8, 5.

40. (43) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, vibration, 29, 32.5, 0.

41. (35) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, brakes, 28, 29.6, 0.

42. (39) Mike Bliss, Toyota, rear gear, 23, 27.3, 0.

43. (36) Scott Speed, Ford, electrical, 19, 26.4, 1.

Top 12 in Points: 1. G.Biffle, 338; 2. D.Earnhardt Jr., 333; 3. D.Hamlin, 329; 4. M.Kenseth, 328; 5. M.Truex Jr., 316; 6. J.Johnson, 314; 7. K.Harvick, 313; 8. T.Stewart, 307; 9. C.Edwards, 287; 10. R.Newman, 278; 11. Ky.Busch, 265; 12. C.Bowyer, 264.

* INDYCAR

Two-time race winner Will Power edged defending IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti to win the pole position for today's Sao Paulo 300 (8 a.m., NBCSP).

Power had a lap of 1 minute, 21.4045 seconds on the 2.5-mile, 11-turn Anhembi circuit on the streets of South America's biggest city, less than half a tenth of a second ahead of Franchitti, whose Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon will start third.

Itaipava Sao Paulo Indy 300 Lineup

After Saturday qualifying; race today

At Sao Paulo Street Circuit

Sao Paulo, Brazil

Lap length: 2.536 miles

(Car number in parentheses)

1. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Chevrolet, 112.151.

2. (10) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 112.09.

3. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 111.534.

4. (27) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Chevrolet, 111.343.

5. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Chevrolet, 111.011.

6. (18) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 110.974.

7. (38) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 111.604.

8. (14) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 111.592.

9. (67) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 111.591.

10. (2) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Chev., 111.541.

11. (26) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Chevrolet, 111.541.

12. (11) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevrolet, 110.634.

13. (8) Rubens Barrichello, Dallara-Chevrolet, 110.804.

14. (5) E.J. Viso, Dallara-Chev., 111.146.

15. (4) J.R. Hildebrand, Dallara-Chevrolet, 110.753.

16. (83) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 111.069.

17. (77) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 110.749.

18. (19) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 110.818.

19. (7) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Lotus, 109.819.

20. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevrolet, 110.777.

21. (25) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Chev., 109.64.

22. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevrolet, 110.072.

23. (78) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Lotus, 109.106.

24. (22) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Lotus, 109.401.

25. (6) Katherine Legge, Dallara-Lotus, 107.91.

26. (15) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda.

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