Is it any surprise that a Camry found its way to Victory Lane in the Toyota Owners 400?
Particularly on a day when Joe Gibbs Racing was dominant at Richmond International Raceway.
Carl Edwards led the most laps (151) — but the final circuit turned out to be key.
Although Kyle Busch appeared to be sailing off to his third win of the season, Edwards nudged him from the point coming out of Turn 4 for the lead — and the win by 0.675-seconds over his teammate.
“I don’t know what happened, but that was cool,” crew chief Dave Rogers told his driver.
“Good work guys,” replied Edwards, who secured his second win in as many weeks.
According to NASCAR, Edwards’ move was the first last lap pass for the win in the history of Richmond International Raceway since the track was reconfigured to 0.75-miles.
Hendrick drivers Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne ran third and fourth, respectively, followed by fellow Chevy driver Kevin Harvick. (For Kahne, it was his first top-five finish since Kansas last fall).
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Kyle Busch gets the short end of a bump ‘n run
Busch extended his lead by several car lengths once the race returned to green after the eighth and final caution. But Edwards began moving his line up, then began diamonding the corners and slowly closed in on Busch before using his bumper in the last corner.
“It’s like he got really slow there at the end,” Edwards said of Busch. “Something happened on that last lap. I think his rear tires went off or something. We went into Turn1, I dove it in and I got to him and I thought, ‘Man, I got to him.’ Then he went to get down to the bottom and park it three and four and I had already decided to go down there. So I thought I give him a little nudge.
“We both have wins. We’re racing for fun, getting trophies. Just an awesome day.”
But finishing second is never “fun” for Kyle Busch. His team reminded him before he exited the car, “We did everything right. Be smart.”
In a very saccharine tone, Kyle Busch, who led 78 laps, offered a politically correct answer to his Gibbs teammate’s move on the last lap.
“We were maybe not as good as Carl on the long runs, but we did everything right,” Busch said. “We did everything we were supposed to do. We put ourselves in the right position. Adam (crew chief Stevens) made some awesome adjustments to the car. We were fading a little bit, but the guys gave me an awesome pit stop, got me the track position, got us out front and gave me a shot to win. So that’s all that matters.”
The Hendrick powered Chevys of Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five. Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch completed the top 10.
Carl Edwards took over the point lead from Kevin Harvick and has a seven-point advantage over the No. 4 team.
Tony Stewart finishes 19th in return
Making his return to Sprint Cup competition after and eight-race absence, Tony Stewart finished 19th. However, his afternoon was not sans drama. Stewart experienced a left rear tire rub on the Lap 258 restart. The tire finally gave way nine laps later. Although Stewart tried to hold on, he hit the wall in Turn 2 on Lap 268. Stewart went a lap down, but received the lucky dog on lap 335 and recovered for a top 20 finish.
“There are a bunch of these guys who couldn’t run another 400 laps and at 44 I can still outrun a lot of these guys, or anyone else who thinks we’ve lost something. We haven’t lost (expletive).”
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Rookie Chase Elliott, who went down a lap early, came back to finish 12th. His Hendrick teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 13th.
The race had 23 lead changes — the most since 2007.
