Victory at Richmond caps off a winning weekend for Kyle Busch

Credit: Drew Hallowell/Getty Images for NASCAR

Carl Edwards dominated most of Saturday's Capitol City 400, then it looked like Tony Stewart would claim his third win of the season. But it was Kyle Busch who ended a 20-race winless streak at Richmond, claiming his fourth consecutive spring race win at the Virginia short track.

Busch lead only one time for 32 laps, but it was those final 15 laps that mattered.

The win was the second for Busch this weekend - his first came as an owner at Friday night's Nationwide race. His big brother Kurt captured the first series win for Kyle's team Kyle Busch Motorsports after a thrilling battle to the finish.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. continued his forward surge this season, finishing second and closing to second in the points standings, just five behind current leader Greg Biffle.

The fifth and final caution hurt Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart. Stewart lead the race before the last caution but lost the race off pit road to Busch following a slow stop. Stewart's fate was sealed when he had a bad restart and was resigned to finished the race in third.

Pit road problems

Pit road miscues abounded during the race. Besides Stewart, Earnhardt Jr. was boxed in his pit box and five-time champion Jimmie Johnson was sent to the tail end of the lead lap for a tire violation. Even race winner Busch at one point took the wave-around to get back on the lead lap.

Edwards black-flagged

Edwards was the front-runner for 206 laps of the race, the most laps the No. 99 has lead all season. Controversy erupted on a restart at Lap 250: Stewart was leading the race and Edwards beat him to the green. Edwards contends that he was told on his scanner by his spotter, who was told by NASCAR officials he was the race leader. Unsure of the reason for the black flag, the 99 team and crew chief Bob Osborne protested to their pit official. NASCAR posted Edwards for jumping the restart and he was forced to serve a pass-through penalty. Edwards salvaged a 10th-place finish after the penalty.

After the race Edwards, Osborne and team owner Jack Roush met with NASCAR officials.

Robin Pemberton explained this issue with the restart in question. "14 is the leader, and he didn't even get to the zone to restart the race yet. Carl, given the information he had, tried to get the best start he could. We were a couple of car lengths before the zone. You have to get to the zone first. That didn't happen."

Osbourne said, "At the end of the day, it comes down to jumping the restart and that's pretty straightforward. Our issue was the confusion about who was the leader and who wasn't the leader."

Edwards said to the media after his meeting with NASCAR, "We had to just agree to disagree and that's the way it is. They run the sport and they do the best job they can, and I drive a racecar and do the very best job I can. I'd rather not say what was said in there. This whole thing is very frustrating. I don't feel like we did the wrong thing."

Race results:

1. Kyle Busch
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
3. Tony Stewart
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Kasey Kahne
6. Jimmie Johnson
7. Clint Bowyer
8. Mark Martin
9. Brad Keselowski
10. Carl Edwards
11. Matt Kenseth
12. Juan Pablo Montoya
13. Paul Menard
14. Jamie McMurray
15. Ryan Newman
16. AJ Allmendinger
17. Bobby Labonte
18. Greg Biffle
19. Kevin Harvick
20. Landon Cassill
21. Casey Mears
22. Marcos Ambrose
23. Jeff Gordon
24. Joey Logano
25. Martin Truex Jr.
26. Aric Almirola
27. Regan Smith
28. Kurt Busch
29. Dave Blaney
30. Travis Kvapil
31. Kurt Busch
32. David Ragan
33. David Reutimann
34. Reed Sorenson
35. Stephen Leicht
36. David Gilliland
37. David Stremme
38. Josh Wise
39. Michael McDowell
40. Cole Whitt
41. Joe Nemechek
42. Mike Bliss
43. Scott Speed