Busch Makes it Three in a Row at Richmond

Kyle Busch took the checkered flag first on Saturday night in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway. The win was the 46th of Busch’s career and third in a row this season, an accomplishment he shares with Kevin Harvick who won three in a row at Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.

Busch’s victory was anything but easy as he started the night off from the 32nd position after an unusually poor qualifying effort on Friday night. Despite this he managed to knife his way through the field quickly and wound up sixth at the end of the race’s first 100 lap stage.

It was easy to assume Busch would find his way to the lead in stage 2 but he spent those 100 laps hovering around his same position and once again placed sixth at the end of the stage.

Joey Logano had claimed both stage victories to that point and it seemed the Fords would be near impossible to beat. In stage 3 the Stewart-Hass Racing Fords assumed control from Logano and all four of their drivers made their way to the front.

Pole sitter Martin Truex Jr. reassumed the lead on lap 277 and from there Toyota’s would lead all but 9 of the race’s final 123 laps. Busch took his first significant lead of the race with 29 to go after Truex experienced problems on pit road.

Busch withstood multiple late race restarts and when Truex had jack problems on the race’s final pitstop and dropped to the back half of the top ten no one else could compete with Busch. Chase Elliott gave a valiant effort on the last restart in overtime but could never get to Busch’s back bumper, allowing the M&Ms Toyota to claim victory once again.

Final Results From the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway: