RICHMOND, Virginia — Carl Edwards claimed his second straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win Sunday with a slight nudge and pass on Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch on the final lap of the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
“Kyle’s an amazing teammate, and it’s like he got really slow there at the end,” Edwards said. “Something happened that last lap. It was like his rear tires went off or something. He went down into (turn) one, and I dove it in and I got to him and I thought, ‘Man, I’ve got something.’ And he went to get down to the bottom and park it in three and four, and I had already decided to go down there, so I thought, ‘Man, I’m going to give him a little nudge,’ and we both have got wins and we’re racing for fun, getting these trophies, and just an awesome day.”
Busch finished second to give JGR a one-two finish. It was Gibbs’ fourth straight win, with Edwards’ two consecutive victories coming immediately after two straight by Busch.
Jimmie Johnson finished third, Kasey Kahne was fourth, and Kevin Harvick was fifth.
“It was fun,” Johnson said. “The cars were slipping and sliding; there was a ton of fall-off. I enjoyed the long runs. I really like sizing-up guys that I’m racing with and seeing how that works out. And then, at the end, we had a bunch of short runs. Thankfully, we got our Lowe’s Pro Services Chevrolet tuned-up at the end. We kind of lost our way in the middle part of the race, but we had good pit stops and some great adjustments at the end got us into the top three.”
The final 120 laps of the 400-lap race was shaping up to look like a battle of brothers after Kurt Busch took the lead from Brad Keselowski on lap 278 and Kyle Busch got up to second on the next lap. Keselowski was running up front after staying out during a lap 268 caution.
But Kurt Busch had a slow pit stop during a yellow flag with 42 laps to go and restarted fifth while Kyle Busch led the way, rejoined up front by teammate Edwards. Kurt Busch lost additional spots when the race returned to green.
Joe Gibbs Racing dominated the first half of the 400-lap race, mostly with Edwards running up front. After Kevin Harvick started on the pole and led the first 21 laps and Jimmie Johnson spent some time up front, Edwards took over on lap 66. He soon was joined up front by Kyle Busch when Busch moved into second on lap 79.
Not long after a cycle of green-flag pit stops just before lap 100, Denny Hamlin joined his Gibbs teammates in the top-three for a JGR 1-2-3 in the running order. Hamlin’s time near the front with his teammates was short-lived, though, as he had to pay a pit road penalty for an uncontrolled tire after a pit stop during a lap-157 yellow flag. He recovered to finish sixth.
Busch got off pit road ahead of Edwards during the caution to take the race lead, but on lap 169, Edwards got by his teammate to reassume his position up front.
Meanwhile, the fourth Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Matt Kenseth, struggled with a battery/alternator issue. Kenseth recovered to finish seventh.
Harvick and Johnson came between the Edwards-Busch duo during the next caution just before the halfway point of the race by beating Busch off pit road.
On lap 230, Edwards lost the lead to Harvick. A few laps later, he lost second to Jimmie Johnson.
“Everybody on our Busch Light/Jimmy John’s team did a good job,” Harvick said. We started really loose to start the race and got into the wall, there, and we had to make some more adjustments after I self-adjusted it. And then, we had a couple of really good runs there in the middle of the race.”
Finishing eighth through 10th were Logano, Martin Truex Jr., and Kurt Busch, respectively.
Sunday’s race was Tony Stewart’s first race of 2016 upon his return from offseason back injury. He started 18th and suffered a flat tire while a lap down on lap 268. He got back on the lead lap with the free pass during a caution with 75 laps to go and finished 19th.