Kyle Busch Dominates In Richmond XFinity Race

Kyle Busch celebrates at Richmond

Sarah Crabill/Getty Images

With one ferociously fast pit stop, Kyle Busch erased a lackluster qualifying effort and cruised to victory in Friday night's Virginia529 College Savings 250 at Richmond International Raceway.

A master at getting on and off pit road in minimal time, Busch entered the pits in fourth place under the first caution of the race after a tap from J.J. Yeley sent Justin Marks spinning into the frontstretch grass on Lap 48.

Busch was first off pit road – decisively – and at that point it was game over, thanks for playing, and Busch was well on the way to his sixth NASCAR XFINITY Series victory at Richmond, his eighth in 14 starts this season and the 84th of his career, extending his own gargantuan series record.

"I never would have guessed that," Busch exulted on the team radio before he started his celebratory burnout. "Great pit stop! Awesome!"

Before the second caution flew on Lap 164 of 250, Busch had a lead of 7.312 seconds and had lapped up to eighth place in the running order before a cycle of green-flag stops began.

Busch finished 6.453 seconds ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and runner-up Erik Jones, who ran the same setup Busch had in his No. 18 Toyota. The victory marked a decisive return to form for the reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, who had crashed out of his two previous XFINITY races.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"] "I just doubted our car today," said Busch, who led 197 laps and scored a perfect driver rating of 150.0. "It just wasn't right. We just kind of missed it all through practice. It wasn't good there, and then we qualified, and it was just a handful in qualifying. We didn't qualify very well-seventh. That's not very well for my expectations.

"We worked on it there at the start of the race. We were really out of control and loose, and I got to fourth, I thought that was kind where we were going to be. But my guys had an awesome pit stop, got me out front, and (crew chief) Chris Gayle made some really smart adjustments to it that first time on pit road.

"After that, it was lights out. It was on a rail from there."

Jones could only admire the skill of his more experienced teammate-when he was close enough to see Busch ahead of him, that is.

"Not much to say," said Jones, whose two laps led during a cycle of green-flag pit stops constituted the only interruption to Busch's charge to the finish. "He had the same setup as us. He's just that good. It's unfortunate. We've run second to him a number of times this year.

"I wish all those were wins, but we've been getting stronger every time."

Brad Keselowski ran third, followed by XFINITY regulars Elliott Sadler, the series leader, and Justin Allgaier. Ty Dillon, polesitter Austin Dillon, Daniel Suarez, Alex Bowman and Brennan Poole completed the top 10.

Ryan Reed, the last driver to finish on the lead lap, clinched a spot in the inaugural XFINITY Series Chase with an 11th-place run, leaving two berths still open heading to the Sept. 17 cutoff race at Chicagoland Speedway.

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 NOS Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 1st

How did you win again tonight?

"Man, I don't know. I thought I was down to begin with. Never give up I guess. Just keep going, keep working and keep doing what we can do. It's obviously an awesome job by my crew chief Chris Gayle. He got a promotion this week, so these guys are going to be celebrating with him pretty hard these next few weeks that we have left this season. True testament to everyone with this NOS Energy Camry. This Toyota was awesome today. I can't thank NOS enough, Toyota, XFINITY and NASCAR and of course the fans as well. We appreciate their support here on a Friday night. It's fun to come out here and race at Richmond. We've got Kroger onboard and also Miller Oil for our vendor partners this weekend, so it's special for them to be in victory lane, especially with the blue and orange. If anybody wants to go over and get one of these bad boys head on over to 7-11. They're on shelves now – the ‘ole Rowdy NOS. It's going to be a new flavor, so tell me what you think, tweet, Facebook, whatever, let me know. It's going to be pretty awesome, but great night."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Where did the little bit of doubt with crew chief Chris Gayle come from?

"Oh, I didn't doubt Chris Gayle (crew chief). I just doubted our car today. It just wasn't right. We just kind of missed it all through practice. It wasn't good there and then we qualified and, man, it was just a handful in qualifying. We didn't qualify very well – seventh – that's not very well for my expectations, but we just worked on it there at the start of the race we were really out of control and loose and I got to fourth, but I thought that was kind of where we were going to be. But then my guys had an awesome pit stop and got me out front. Chris Gayle made some really smart adjustments to it there that first time on pit road and after that it was lights out. Man, it was on a rail from there. It felt really, really good and obviously it was a great day for our teammate too, Erik (Jones) behind us, so a good one too."

How were you able to win this race tonight?

"It's a great night. I certainly didn't expect that. You guys can go back and replay my message I had before the race. I figured we were going to be stuck fourth to eighth and I was right there on that first run, you know? We were fourth and that was it, but the guys made some awesome adjustments – Chris Gayle (crew chief) and all of these boys did a really good job and got me hooked up there after that first pit stop. Guys on pit road gave me a great pit stop to get me out front to get me that lead but the car was really good after that too – man, through traffic, anywhere I wanted to go, all that stuff – I didn't expect that from practice earlier today and from how we qualified. Man, I thought we weren't going to be but a fourth-place car."

Did you work on the car at all with the other pit stop?

"It was pretty good at that point, but we never give up. We're never satisfied, so we worked on it a little bit more that final stop that we had and was just able to free it up a little bit and get the car to roll the bottom a little bit longer through the runs so I didn't have to abuse the right front tire and I could just continue to hold the groove that I wanted to and just drive away a little bit from those guys behind me. Great day for us at Joe Gibbs Racing. This Toyota Camry was awesome tonight. NOS Energy drink, can't say enough about them, thank you. Also got a new NOS Energy Drink here, Rowdy NOS, if anybody wants to go to 7-11 and pickup one of them bad boys tweet us, Facebook us, let us know how it tastes of course. But, we've also got to thank our vendor partners here with us this weekend as well – Kroger and Miller Oil. Those guys do an awesome job supporting us. We have a lot of fun out here."

What did you learn about the race track for tomorrow night's NSCS race?

"Well, there's certainly some multiple grooves out there. Guys were trying to make the middle work and guys were trying to make the top-top work and that was crazy to see. Our car was really good right around the bottom. It just seemed to like punting that line and being down there on that bottom. I think that's the place to be if you get your car working down there and motor on. Cup cars are different because they've got more horsepower, so you tend to try to slow down a little bit more in the corner but use that straightaway so you've got to make the straightaways longer with that horsepower. Hopefully it's a good show for the fans and I know tomorrow night will be a good show for the fans, there's a lot on the line."

Race Results

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]