Kyle Busch dominates at Bristol

The 23-year-old led 378 out of 503 laps to claim his second career win at the half-mile oval and his 14th in NASCAR's top series. Busch has won a race at every track he has competed in NASCAR this year, and adds a fifth success to his tally of victories in 2009, counting all three national divisions.

The Joe Gibbs driver got revenge from Saturday when he had dominated the Nationwide Series event but lost victory due to a pitroad penalty in the closing stages. This time his pitcrew mirrored what Busch did on the track and he grabbed the lead from Jimmie Johnson on lap 69.

After that, his team-mate Denny Hamlin seemed the only one capable of putting him under any pressure. In fact, Hamlin passed Busch for the lead on lap 316 when both were in traffic, but a few laps later the order was restored by the Vegas native who has moved up to fourth place in the championship.

"It was a good day for us," said Busch. "The [car] was really fast. We knew it was fast. We knew it was going to be a good car coming here from our performance last fall. We fine tuned on it a little bit here and there.

"We need to work on the qualifying package a little bit, but ultimately it doesn't really matter where you start here. You have to bide your time, take it easy when you have a car that's good. It was a very satisfying day today. We had a great run there, I really enjoyed it."

Hamlin kept the pressure on Busch for the green-white-chequered finish, but he never got close enough to his team-mate to attempt a pass. His second place allowed him to make big gains in the points as he now moves six places up to eighth in the standings, heading into his home race next weekend at Martinsville, where he won a year ago.

"We just had a car that was good in the long runs," said Hamlin. "The car was extremely good after 80 or 90 laps but unfortunately we didn't get that long of a run in the end. Kyle had a great car. He had the best car on the short run, we had the best on the long run and it just worked out good for them."

Johnson had his best ever outing at Bristol, one of only six tracks he has never won a race at. He led 88 laps and ran in the top five for most of the day, collecting points that break him into the top 10 in the championship for the first time this year.

"I'm very pleased," Johnson said. "In some ways to be that close to a win and to see the #18 car [Kyle Busch] pull into victory lane, I can now see what the leaders do and I can visualise being in that position someday. Before we were so far off and had some decent runs but really weren't racing for the win. Today we did that, so I'm very proud of all the work."

Jeff Gordon finished the race in fourth place behind his team-mate, while Kasey Kahne had his best finish of the year with a solid fifth. He was running as high as third in the closing stages but couldn't fend off the charge from the Hendrick duo in the end, although he was able to keep Mark Martin behind.

"[The car] went away a touch there at the end," Kahne said. "We made a small adjustment and I don't think that's what it was. We just kind of slowed up there but it was still a good run for us. The guys did a good job in the pits and good calls. We've made gains in the last two weeks."

Ryan Newman finished seventh - also his best result of the year - leading his first laps for Stewart Haas Racing in the early stages having started from the front row. Jeff Burton recovered from 40th on the grid up to eighth place by the chequered flag, closely challenged by Juan Pablo Montoya who scored his first top 10 of the season.

Australian Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top 10 - his first in the Sprint Cup on an oval - ahead of a recovering Kurt Busch, who got damage to the front end of his car in an early multi-car incident, triggered when Todd Bodine got squeezed between the wall and Michael Waltrip's Toyota.

Carl Edwards, winner at Bristol back in August, was not a contender for victory at all and could only manage 15th place as the best of the Roush Fenway camp. Yet again one of the team's cars retired from the race with an engine failure, this time costing Greg Biffle points.

Also retiring with engine issues was rookie Joey Logano, who brought out the final caution of the race with seven laps remaining.

Jeff Gordon has extended his lead in the standings to 76 points over Kurt Busch, who moved up to second ahead of Clint Bowyer.

Pos Driver                 Car             Laps
 1. Kyle Busch             Toyota           503
 2. Denny Hamlin           Toyota           503
 3. Jimmie Johnson         Chevrolet        503
 4. Jeff Gordon            Chevrolet        503
 5. Kasey Kahne            Dodge            503
 6. Mark Martin            Chevrolet        503
 7. Ryan Newman            Chevrolet        503
 8. Jeff Burton            Chevrolet        503
 9. Juan Pablo Montoya     Chevrolet        503
10. Marcos Ambrose         Toyota           503
11. Kurt Busch             Dodge            503
12. David Reutimann        Toyota           503
13. Clint Bowyer           Chevrolet        503
14. Dale Earnhardt Jr      Chevrolet        503
15. Carl Edwards           Ford             503
16. A.J. Allmendinger      Dodge            503
17. Tony Stewart           Chevrolet        502
18. Travis Kvapil          Ford             502
19. David Stremme          Dodge            502
20. Elliott Sadler         Dodge            502
21. Robby Gordon           Toyota           501
22. Bobby Labonte          Ford             501
23. Reed Sorenson          Dodge            501
24. Casey Mears            Chevrolet        501
25. Paul Menard            Ford             501
26. Martin Truex Jr        Chevrolet        501
27. David Ragan            Ford             500
28. Scott Speed            Toyota           500
29. Brian Vickers          Toyota           499
30. Kevin Harvick          Chevrolet        499
31. Sam Hornish Jr         Dodge            499
32. Michael Waltrip        Toyota           497
33. Matt Kenseth           Ford             497
34. John Andretti          Chevrolet        495
35. Aric Almirola          Chevrolet        494
36. David Gilliland        Chevrolet        493
37. Jamie McMurray         Ford             491
38. Joey Logano            Toyota           490
39. Greg Biffle            Ford             326
40. Sterling Marlin        Dodge             91
41. Joe Nemechek           Toyota            82
42. Todd Bodine            Toyota            58
43. Dave Blaney            Toyota            33