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Kyle Busch wins Richmond Cup race

Kyle Busch celebrated his 24th birthday in style by sweeping the weekend at Richmond, winning his third Sprint Cup race of the year a day after taking victory in the Nationwide event

Busch emerged as a strong contender for victory after he pitted for the last time during the 11th of an event-record 15 caution periods. Making the most of fresh rubber, and without having to worry about saving fuel unlike most of those ahead of him, he passed rivals one by one until he caught up with leader Jeff Gordon.

Following the penultimate restart, he got by the Hendrick driver and was able to build a big enough lead to coast to his 15th Sprint Cup win, becoming only the second driver in NASCAR history to win a race on his birthday.

"It was an awesome win for us," said Busch. "We've struggled for four weeks and we hadn't finished the way we wanted to but we made it happen here tonight.

"We needed to get out and get a long run, and those guys had to chase us back and they couldn't catch us. It really worked out. [Crew chief] Steve [Addington] made a great race call there on when to pit and take four [new] tyres and we were able to stay out front from then on."

Tony Stewart finished second and was another to take four new tyres during a late caution. At one point he seemed to be in hot pursuit of Busch, but a much-expected caution didn't arrive and he was unable to get close to his former team-mate.

"I'm not sure we had a second-place car but we got there at the end," said Stewart after scoring his fourth top five result in the last five races. "We had about 20 or 30 laps more left on our tyres than everybody else and that gave us an advantage."

Jeff Burton finished third on a similar strategy to Stewart, recovering well from an early incident with Dale Earnhardt Jr when he hit the wall on lap 212. Ryan Newman finished fourth, rounding out the best race of the year thus far for Stewart-Haas Racing, followed by veteran Mark Martin.

Sam Hornish Jr claimed his best career finish with a solid sixth place, gaining many spots in the closing stages of the race while making the most of his tyre strategy.

Jamie McMurray was seventh as the best of those who chose to stay on track and not pitting during the 11th caution, followed by Gordon, who ran more laps than anyone with his last set of tyres but eventually paid the price.

Casey Mears was ninth in his first race working with Todd Berrier as his crew chief, scoring his best result of the season and recovering from a slow start to his night. Meanwhile, Juan Pablo Montoya finished behind getting his third top 10 result of the season.

Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin seemed to have the best cars in the first part of the race, but they only managed to finish 12th and 14th respectively.

Busch was among the big movers in the early going, but he struggled in the last part of the race after some adjustments made during his last stop. He had looked the main threat to Hamlin, who led 148 laps but struggled for grip at the end after taking only two new tyres on his last pitstop.

He was trying to recover from a delayed stop earlier that had dropped him from the lead down to eighth place.

Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson, who had won three out of the previous four races at Richmond, had a night to forget. He struggled with brake problems in the first half of the race, then had to serve three different penalties after causing the sixth caution of the day due to a spin, and finally ended up involved in a wreck with 75 laps remaining.

He was the biggest loser of the day, sliding down to sixth from third in the points, while his team-mate Jeff Gordon reclaimed the lead in the standings from Kurt Busch. Tony Stewart moved up to third and Kyle Busch is now fifth in the championship.

Pos  Driver             Car        Laps
 1.  Kyle Busch         Toyota      400
 2.  Tony Stewart       Chevrolet   400
 3.  Jeff Burton        Chevrolet   400
 4.  Ryan Newman        Chevrolet   400
 5.  Mark Martin        Chevrolet   400
 6.  Sam Hornish Jr     Dodge       400
 7.  Jamie McMurray     Ford        400
 8.  Jeff Gordon        Chevrolet   400
 9.  Casey Mears        Chevrolet   400
10.  Juan Montoya       Chevrolet   400
11.  Marcos Ambrose     Toyota      400
12.  Kurt Busch         Dodge       400
13.  Matt Kenseth       Ford        400
14.  Denny Hamlin       Toyota      400
15.  Brian Vickers      Toyota      400
16.  Robby Gordon       Toyota      400
17.  Greg Biffle        Ford        400
18.  Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet   400
19.  Joey Logano        Toyota      400
20.  Reed Sorenson      Dodge       400
21.  A.J. Allmendinger  Dodge       400
22.  Martin Truex Jr    Chevrolet   400
23.  David Ragan        Ford        400
24.  Michael Waltrip    Toyota      400
25.  Elliott Sadler     Dodge       400
26.  Carl Edwards       Ford        400
27.  Dale Earnhardt Jr  Chevrolet   399
28.  David Reutimann    Toyota      399
29.  Kasey Kahne        Dodge       399
30.  Paul Menard        Ford        398
31.  Bobby Labonte      Ford        398
32.  John Andretti      Chevrolet   397
33.  Scott Speed        Toyota      396
34.  Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet   394
35.  Jeremy Mayfield    Toyota      371
36.  Jimmie Johnson     Chevrolet   368
37.  Mike Bliss         Dodge       368
38.  David Stremme      Dodge       324
39.  David Gilliland    Chevrolet    92
40.  Joe Nemechek       Toyota       90
41.  Tony Raines        Chevrolet    74
42.  Scott Riggs        Toyota       54
43.  Dave Blaney        Toyota        8

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