RICHMOND, Va. — Carl Edwards bumped teammate Kyle Busch off his racing line in the last turn and passed him to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Richmond International Raceway on Sunday.
Edwards, who had fallen nearly 1.5 seconds behind his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate after a restart with 36 laps to go, gradually ran him down until the final lap. Then he slipped underneath Busch, a master blocker in late-race situations, and nudged him just enough to allow Edwards to take the lead coming out of the fourth turn for his second consecutive victory. It was also the fourth in a row for the Gibbs stable, and fifth in nine races.
Jimmie Johnson finished third, follow by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne and pole-sitter Kevin Harvick.
Tony Stewart said he’s not going to keep quiet when he has safety concerns.
The three-time Sprint Cup Series champion was fined $35,000 on Thursday by NASCAR after suggesting that the series needs to do a better job of monitoring whether teams use five lug nuts during tire changes instead of letting teams take short cuts, using three or four, at the risk of safety.
Stewart, making his first start this season after missing eight races following back surgery, hasn’t made himself available to media this weekend at Richmond International Raceway. He did an interview with FOX as part of the pre-race coverage of Sunday’s race on the 0.75-mile oval.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. dominated all day and regained the lead on a late restart to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday, earning his 24th career victory in the series and first in more than six years.
Earnhardt built a lead of more than 5 seconds as the first 125 laps were run caution-free. When a caution finally flew with 15 laps to go, he and the other 10 cars on the lead lap headed for the pits, and chaos ensued, causing the race to go nine extra laps.
Earnhardt was beaten off pit road by his J.R. Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier, one of four drivers contending for a $100,000 bonus. But Brennan Poole, another contender for the bonus, stayed on the track on old tires.
When the race when back to green, he nudged the back of Allgaier’s car, sending him spinning out of the race. That opened a door for Earnhardt to get back in front and for Ty Dillon to hold on for second and claim the $100,000 bonus in overtime.
