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Kyle Busch wins Richmond Nationwide

Kyle Busch scored his third Nationwide Series win of the year in the Lipton Tea 250 at Richmond International Raceway

The Joe Gibbs racer made the most of a restart with 22 laps remaining when he overtook Carl Edwards for the lead driving on the outside of the Roush Fenway driver. Despite another two caution periods before the end, Busch was unbeatable on cold tyres, keeping Edwards at bay until the chequered flag.

"You've just got to keep digging," Busch said about the pass on Edwards, which virtually gave him his 24th Nationwide Series win, allowing him to increase his lead in the drivers' standing to 82 points over Edwards.

"We're in championship form. We can't falter like I did in the beginning of the year, like the team did at the beginning of the year. Just smooth nights like tonight when nothing goes wrong it's kind of picture perfect, just scripted."

Edwards admitted defeat even if he had a car that was capable of winning the race, as he kept Busch behind him earlier in the race, leading it for 71 laps. He said there was nothing he could do to prevent his rival from passing him on the late restart.

"It's simple, he smokes me on the restarts," Edwards admitted. "I did everything I could. That car that he's got there goes really good on those restarts and I could probably do a little bit better job but I did the best I could on that last [restart] and I couldn't get near him, so my hats off to those guys."

Polesitter Matt Kenseth came back from his scary flip at Talladega to finish the race in a strong third place. Although he was only able to lead the race for two laps, he was a top contender for most of the night.

Fresh from his maiden Sprint Cup win at Talladega, Brad Keselowski moved up in the closing stages of the race to finish fourth although not without some contact. While fighting for position and racing with a pushed-in front fender he made contact with the left-rear of Jason Leffler's car, sending him into a spin and igniting a multi-car incident that saw Jeff Burton and Brian Scott involved.

Kevin Harvick took advantage of fresher rubber than some of his rivals to finish fifth in the end, having pitted for tyres when the caution came out with 39 laps remaining. Joey Logano finished sixth behind him, running a similar tyre strategy.

Mark Martin had a quiet night driving the #5 car for JR Motorsports but still was able to get a solid seventh place finish, ahead of Michael McDowell who slid from fourth on the final restart down to eighth, Jason Keller and Leffler. Only the top ten cars finished on the lead lap.

Mike Bliss, driving for Phoenix Racing, was a frontrunner early in the race leading for 61 laps. He was running fourth in the closing stages but was forced to a lengthy pitstop due to a broken track bar on his car.

Pos  Driver             Car        Laps
 1.  Kyle Busch         Toyota      250
 2.  Carl Edwards       Ford        250
 3.  Matt Kenseth       Ford        250
 4.  Brad Keselowski    Chevrolet   250
 5.  Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet   250
 6.  Joey Logano        Toyota      250
 7.  Mark Martin        Chevrolet   250
 8.  Michael McDowell   Toyota      250
 9.  Jason Keller       Ford        250
10.  Jason Leffler      Toyota      250
11.  Steve Wallace      Chevrolet   249
12.  Erik Darnell       Ford        249
13.  Shelby Howard      Chevrolet   249
14.  David Green        Toyota      249
15.  Tony Raines        Chevrolet   249
16.  Scott Wimmer       Chevrolet   249
17.  Scott Lagasse Jr   Toyota      248
18.  Joe Nemechek       Chevrolet   248
19.  Peyton Sellers     Chevrolet   248
20.  Danny O'Quinn Jr   Chevrolet   248
21.  Brian Keselowski   Dodge       248
22.  Derrike Cope       Dodge       248
23.  Kenny Wallace      Chevrolet   247
24.  D.J. Kennington    Dodge       247
25.  Casey Atwood       Chevrolet   247
26.  Brendan Gaughan    Chevrolet   246
27.  Scott Speed        Toyota      246
28.  Burney Lamar       Toyota      246
29.  Marc Davis         Toyota      244
30.  Brandon Whitt      Ford        237
31.  Jeff Burton        Chevrolet   233
32.  Brian Scott        Toyota      232
33.  Mike Bliss         Chevrolet   229
34.  Michael Annett     Toyota      219
35.  Ken Butler III     Chevrolet   216
36.  Morgan Shepherd    Chevrolet   200
37.  Benny Gordon       Ford        157
38.  Justin Allgaier    Dodge       140
39.  Eric McClure       Ford         82
40.  Mark Green         Chevrolet    30
41.  Terry Cook         Chevrolet    24
42.  Kertus Davis       Chevrolet    22
43.  Johnny Chapman     Chevrolet    12

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