RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Kyle Busch started first and stayed there almost all the way, leading 236 laps and earning his first career victory Friday night in the NASCAR Busch series race at Richmond International Raceway.

On a night when many eyes were on how the new asphalt surface held up and whether a second racing lane developed, Busch showed the front was the place to be.

He repeatedly pulled away on long runs and restarts, including two after a 13-minute red-flag stoppage with 12 laps remaining.

On the last one, with three laps to go, Busch never got closer than a car length ahead of Greg Biffle, but hung on to win by 0.150 seconds.

“This is only one of many hopefully,” said Busch, who had three second-place finishes in his brief career. He also moved into the series points lead, passing Martin Truex Jr., who was seventh, by 15 points.

“We had a great car out there, a phenomenal car,” Busch said. “We had the fastest car in practice, the fastest car in qualifying, led the most laps and won the race. It’s a weekend that you dream of.”

During the red flag, “I put my head on the head rest and closed my eyes,” he said. “I was like, “We’ve either got it or we don’t.”‘

The Funai 250 was slowed by cautions 11 times, including a few early flags possibly caused by the absence of an outside racing groove.

But driver Jamie McMurray said the groove appeared to be gradually widening, a hopeful sign in advance of Saturday night’s Nextel Cup race

McMurray started second and took the lead on the 86th lap, but lasted only two laps in front before suddenly veering into the outside wall.

“I must have cut a tire down,” McMurray said. “The car had been pretty free the whole run and it just blew out all of a sudden.”

Busch never had any such trouble.

The 19-year-old brother of Nextel Cup star Kurt Busch was making only his 18th start in the Busch series and won by handling myriad late-race challenges brought about by cautions and the late red flag.

The stoppage came after Michael Waltrip and Tony Raines crashed in the first and second turns on the 235th lap, causing an extensive cleanup.

The race first went back to green with 10 laps left, and then again with three to go, and each time Busch kept Biffle chasing.

“I could have got to his bumper there at the end of the race, but I figured I’d let him go,” Biffle said. “He drove a good race all night and I didn’t want to do someone like that just to get a win.”

Harvick finished third behind Busch’s Chevrolet and Biffle’s Ford. Bobby Hamilton Jr. was fourth, followed by Jason Keller and David Green.

Running second, defending race champion Kevin Harvick and then Biffle couldn’t prevent Busch from taking ownership of the main low racing groove on restarts and easily pull away to lead by several car lengths.

Busch best demonstrated his dominance on a restart with 37 laps to go, building a lead of 11/2 seconds within two laps as Harvick got stuck behind the lapped car of Robby Gordon and then shuffled back to fourth.

Biffle showed that passing was possible on the new surface. He started 21st, worked his way into the top three within 100 laps and might have been one good pit stop from challenging for the victory.

After entering pit road running second with about 76 laps remaining, Biffle emerged eighth and ran out of time to catch the leader. He had regained second when the 10th caution flag flew with 16 laps to go, but even the red flag four laps later didn’t slow Busch’s drive to victory.

Robby Gordon started 10th, finished 19th and left almost immediately for Indianapolis, where he’ll try to qualify Saturday for the Indianapolis 500 before returning to Richmond for the Nextel Cup race.

AP-ES-05-14-04 2346EDT