Kyle Busch capitalizes on late caution for Richmond win

Pulling away from Dale Earnhardt Jr. after a restart with eight laps left in Saturday night’s Capital City 400 at Richmond International Raceway, Kyle Busch streaked to his fourth straight victory in the spring race at the .75-mile track.

The win was Busch’s first of the season and the 24th of his career. Tony Stewart, the race leader before the fifth and final caution for debris in Turn 2, lost ground on the restart and finished third. Denny Hamlin ran fourth, followed by Kasey Kahne.

A caution for Jeff Burton’s crash into the Turn 3 wall on Lap 311 interrupted a cycle of green-flag pit stops and scrambled the running order.

Johnson, who came to pit road when the caution flew, was penalized for a tire violation on his pit stop — after one of his crewmen rolled a tire unattended toward the pit wall — and had to restart on Lap 319 from the tail end of the field.

That same restart proved disastrous for Edwards, who was black-flagged for jumping the start after he put the power down, in NASCAR’s judgment, before reaching the double red restart lines on the outside wall.

Forced to serve a pass-through penalty, Edwards dropped to 15th, 17 seconds behind Stewart. On lap 372, Stewart put Edwards a lap down and pulled away from Busch in second place to a lead of nearly two seconds.

Johnson rallied to finish sixth, but Edwards, who led a race-high 210 laps, had to settle for 10th, after getting back on the lead lap as the free-pass car under the fifth caution of the evening.