Kyle Busch dominates, cruises to Xfinity win at Richmond

Busch led 197 laps en route to his eight Xfinity Series win in 2016 —his fifth at RIR and his 84th career win on the tour.

“I was down to begin with, but never give up I guess, just keep going, keep working, keep doing what we do,” Busch said.

“Obviously, an awesome job by my crew chief Chris Gayle. It was a true testament to everyone on this team…our car wasn’t right, we just kind of missed it all through practice. Then we qualified and it was a handful in qualifying. We didn’t qualify very well — seventh — that’s not very well for my expectations. But again, we just worked on it. At the start of the race, we were just out of control and loose. I thought that was where we were going to be but my guys had an awesome pit stop. They got me out front. Chris Gayle made some really smart adjustments that first time on pit road and after that, it was lights out. It was on a rail from there."

The average speed of the race was 103.695mph and lasted 1:51:05.

Erik Jones, Brad Keselowski, Elliott Sadler and Justin Allgaier rounded out the top-five finishers.

Clean and green

The race was slowed by just two cautions. The first mishap evolved when contact occurred between Justin Marks and J.J. Yeley resulting in the No. 42 Chevy spinning on the front stretch on Lap 48. Busch took the lead from polesitter Austin Dillon on Lap 52.

Green flag pit stops started on Lap 140. By Lap 142, when Busch lapped NXS leader Elliott Sadler, only eight cars remained on the lead lap. Busch led 106 circuits before pitting on Lap 158 and transferring the lead to his teammate Erik Jones. The No. 20 car held the point for two laps until pitting and returning the lead to Busch on Lap 160.

Busch remained on the track when NASCAR signaled the second caution on Lap 163 for a loose wheel on pit road. While the other leader lap cars pitted, Busch remained on the track and led the remaining 80 laps.

With 30 laps remaining in the race, Busch extended his lead by five-and-a-half seconds over Jones. His advantage over Jones at the finish was 6.4-seconds with 11 competitors on the lead lap.

Ty Dillon, Daniel Suarez, Alex Bowman and Brennan Poole rounded out the top 10 finishers.

Chase outlook

Sadler continues to lead the standings by 58-points over Suarez. Ryan Reed, who finished 11th, became the 10th driver to lock into the inaugural NXS Chase. Two spots will be up for grabs next weekend at Chicagoland.

Knowledge for the Cup race

Busch picked up more than a win on Friday night, he learned there were multiple grooves that worked on the 0.75-mile track. However, Busch was fastest around the low line.

“Our car was really good right around the bottom,” Busch said. “It just like to be down there, hunting that line and being down there on the bottom. I think that’s the place to be if you can get your car to work down there and motor on.

“Cup cars are different because they have more horsepower so you tend to slow down a little bit more in the corner but you use that straightaway with the horsepower. Hopefully, it was a good show for the fans. I know tomorrow night will be a good show for the fans. There’s a lot on the line.”

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Laps Led
1	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	250		197
2	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	250	6.453	2
3	22	Brad Keselowski	Ford	250	11.555
4	1	Elliott Sadler	Chevrolet	250	12.813
5	7	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	250	13.468
6	3	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	250	19.620
7	2	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	250	20.509	51
8	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	250	23.316
9	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	250	23.759
10	48	Brennan Poole	Chevrolet	250	23.805