Friday, September 7 Richmond Int'l Raceway Richmond, Virginia

Kyle Busch celebrates after dominating the race to win at Richmond...

Busch Dominates Richmond Busch Race

RICHMOND, VA (September 7, 2007) - As far as Kyle Busch was concerned, a two-lap dash to the finish was no different from the 250 laps that preceded it.

After a red-flag period that lasted six minutes, in a race that went two laps beyond its posted distance, Busch pulled away from Carl Edwards in a green-white-checkered-flag finish to win the Emerson Radio 250 NASCAR Busch Series race Friday night at Richmond International Raceway.

Busch crossed the finish line .868 seconds ahead of Edwards, the series points leader. Ryan Newman ran third, followed by Matt Kenseth, who stopped for four tires under caution with 12 laps left and restarted 10th on Lap 242. Mike Bliss came home fifth, followed by Brian Vickers, Denny Hamlin, Scott Wimmer, Kasey Kahne and Jason Keller.

Busch led 227 of the 252 laps in collecting his second Busch Series win in 15 starts this season and the ninth of his career.

"We wouldn't want it any other way," said Busch, who finished second to Jeff Burton last weekend at California Speedway after surrendering the lead with seven laps remaining. "We had two great chances at Bristol (where he finished fourth) and California and didn't get it done. This is halfway payback, because we want the Cup Series (win on Saturday), too."

Kenseth appeared to have an answer for Busch in the middle stages of the race. On Lap 143, Kenseth powered past Busch at the start/finish line and held the top spot until Paul Menard spun in Turn 1 on Lap 161 and slammed into the outside wall.

Running right behind Menard's lapped car at the time, Kenseth was hard on the brakes to avoid contact, but the driver of the No. 17 Ford spun down to the apron in Turn 2 after checking up behind Menard's No. 15 Chevy. Kenseth lost three spots in the process, and Busch regained the lead.

On pit road during the caution, Kenseth fell to sixth during the yellow-flag stops. The loss of track position effectively ended Kenseth's chance to win the race.

"Kenseth had the car to beat today, and I knew that," Busch said. "But our car was right there with him. He got the lead from us a couple of times. Then he spun himself out over there with the lapped car."

Kenseth said the spin was unavoidable.

"The 15 was so close to me I couldn't stop," Kenseth said, "so I had to turn the wheel a little bit, and my car was so loose it just spun out."

Thereafter, Busch stayed in front, comfortably ahead of Edwards in the second position, until AJ Allmendinger's spin on the frontstretch brought out the seventh caution of the race on Lap 236. After the restart on Lap 242, Busch opened a 10-car-length gap over Edwards before oil on the track from Derrike Cope's blown engine brought the yellow flag on Lap 246 and the stoppage with three laps left.

Thanks to Wimmer's eighth-place finish, the No. 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevy retained the Busch owner points lead by 40 over the No. 60 Roush Fenway Ford driven by Edwards.

Complete race results and point standings in the Event Stats section following... Fast Wrap

• Kyle Busch won the Emerson Radio 250, his ninth victory in 104 NASCAR Busch Series races.
• This is his second victory and 12th top-10 finish in 15 NASCAR Busch Series races in 2007.
• This is his second victory and fifth top-10 finish in eight races at Richmond.
• Carl Edwards (second) posted his 18th top-10 finish in 2007, but his first in the past six races. It is his fourth top-10 finish in six races at Richmond.
• Ryan Newman (third) posted his third top-10 finish in eight NASCAR Busch Series races in 2007. It is his third top 10 in four Richmond races.
• Marcos Ambrose (15th) was the highest finishing rookie.
• Edwards now leads the NASCAR Busch series point standings by 733 points over Kevin Harvick

Schedule/Broadcast Times

Practice: Friday, September 7 (ESPN2 at 11 A.m./AT, 10 A.m./ET)

Qualifying: Friday, September 7 (ESPN2 & TSN-alt at 5 P.M./AT, 4 p.m./ET)

Pre-Race Show: Friday, September 7 (ESPN2 at 8:30 p.m./AT, 7:30 p.m./ET)

Race: Friday, September 7 (ESPN2 at 9 p.m./AT, 8 p.m./ET) (TSN-HD at 1 a.m./AT Sat., Midnight/ET)

Event Stats PDF files unless otherwise noted

Entry List

Starting Lineup

Race Results

Point Standings

Green Flag Fast Facts
The Race: Emerson Radio 250
The Place: Richmond International Raceway
The Date: Sept. 7, 20071
The Time: 8:00 p.m. (ET)
TV: ESPN2, 7:30 p.m. (ET)
Track Layout: .75-mile oval
Race Purse: $1,123,290
2006 Winner: Kevin Harvick
2006 Pole: Jeff Burton
Pre-Race Schedule (local track time): Friday – Practice, 8:30 - 9:40 a.m.; Rookie Practice, 9:40 - 10:10 a.m.; Final Practice, 10:10 - 11:10 a.m.; Qualifying, 4:05 p.m.
Year-To-Date Standings: click here

Track Map



Green Flag Notes

• Busch Series driver point standings leader Carl Edwards became the second-fastest to surpass $1 million in winnings in a season following last week’s race at California. Edwards has eanred $1,000,910 after 27 events. Only Martin Truex Jr., the 2004-05 NASCAR Busch Series champion, was faster to $1 million. Truex accomplished the feat in 2005 following the season’s 20th race. He finished the year with $3,123,692 in winnings, the series record.
• Richmond Has International Flair: This week’s event at Richmond has an international twist thanks to four drivers entered from three different countries. In addition to the usual domestic contingent of drivers, Australia’s Marcos Ambrose (No. 59 Kingsford Ford) – currently eighth in the series point standings – is joined by John Graham (No. 37 Kickbutt Amped Energy Ballz Ford) who hails from Toronto, Canada. Graham’s fellow countryman, St. Thomas native D.J Kennington (No. 72 McDonald Motorsports Dodge) is entered along with Alex Garcia (No. 98 Dixien-Omni Source Chevrolet) who is from Caracas, Venezuela. Garcia is the only one of the international quartet seeking to make his first series start at Richmond.
• Kevin Harvick has only one finish outside the top 10 in his last nine races at Richmond – he was 12th in the 2005 fall race. He has four wins during that span, including the last two fall races.
• Matt Kenseth (No. 17 Arby’s Ford) has finished in the top eight in 13 of his last 14 races at Richmond, including 10 top fives. He’s finished in the top three in the last four races at RIR.
• David Reutimann (No. 99 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota), currently third in the driver point standings only three points behind Harvick, made his NASCAR Busch Series debut at Richmond in the spring race in 2002. He finished 16th.
• Two 18-year-olds – Bryan Clauson (No. 41 Memorex Dodge) and Landon Cassill (No. 24 National Guard-32nd Infantry Brigade Chevrolet) will be making NASCAR Busch Series debuts of different kinds at Richmond. Clauson – who turned 18 while observing the race weekend for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates at Kentucky Speedway last June after graduating from high school in May – will make his overall series debut after coming out of midget and sprint cars where he has had tremendous success despite his young age. Cassill will make his first start at Richmond after competing in his first two series events over the summer at Gateway International Raceway and O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. Cassill turned in an impressive sixth-place starting position in his first qualifying effort at Gateway. He improved his best finish in his limited action to date two places at ORP (30th).
• Time is beginning to run out on Marcos Ambrose’s effort to catch leader David Ragan (No. 6 Discount Tire Ford) in the standings. Ragan put two more points between him and Ambrose following California where Ragan posted his seventh top-10 finish of the season. Ambrose was strong, but finished 13th. Ragan had the upper hand at Richmond last spring as well with a 14th-place showing compared to Ambrose’s 26th. … Only two Raybestos Rookies have won the fall race at Richmond – Bobby Hamilton in 1989 and Steve Park in ’97 – while Andy Santerre (’98) is the only Raybestos Rookie to capture a Busch Pole in the fall event at RIR.

IMPORTANT: All information, schedules and/or scheduled events is/are subject to change without notice. Please check with the source to confirm.