RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Kyle Busch passed Carl Edwards on the first lap of a restart with 22 laps to go and won the NASCAR Nationwide Series race Friday night at Richmond International Raceway.

Busch, who led four times in the Lipton Tea 250, made the move that counted in the third and fourth turns on the 229th trip around the 0.75-mile oval. Edwards led the previous 71 laps, with Busch seemingly the only other driver with a car to contend.

Busch’s Toyota, he said, “was right when it mattered most.”

The Sprint Cup star proved it by passing Edwards to the outside to grab the lead and then twice more on the final restarts – with eight laps to go and again with five laps remaining.

Busch pulled away easily the second time, and Edwards never really challenged.

The victory was Busch’s third in nine starts this season and 13th since the start of last season, when he missed five races but won 10 and finished sixth in the point standings.

Busch led 115 laps in his third career victory in the series at Richmond.

“I feel like tonight was a good night to get back on track,” Busch said. “Tonight was a race that mattered and we had our biggest challenger behind us in Carl, so it was nice to beat him out, straight up, and we had some other issues with the car that we fought through.”

Edwards held on to finish second, followed by Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski.

“He smoked me on the restarts,” said Edwards, second to Busch in the series standings. Edwards remained winless and has finished behind Busch in five consecutive races.

Busch’s lead over Edwards in the series standings grew to 82 points.

For a while, it looked as if the 2007 series champion would turn the tables.

Edwards was running second and gaining on Busch when a caution slowed the pace just past the midpoint. It went back to green on lap 138 and it took Edwards 20 laps to take the lead.

They were still running 1-2 when another caution flew on lap 204, and they quickly separated themselves from the field along with Mark Martin, who was running 11th but fighting to stay on the lead lap after pitting under a green flag just before the caution came out.

Martin, the career leader with 48 series victories, wound up seventh.

“Maybe we’ll have a contender tomorrow night,” Martin said.

Busch’s victory was his 24th in the series, pulling him into a tie with Kenseth and Tommy Houston for fifth on the career list. Kenseth said he never had a chance on Friday night.

“I had a pretty solid car. I just could never get it quite right to be able to run with those guys,” Kenseth said. “It would be nice to be able to win one of these things, too.”

Kevin Harvick finished fifth, followed by Joey Logano and Martin, giving Sprint Cup Series regulars the top seven spots at the finish. Nationwide regular Michael McDowell was eighth.

Brad Keselowski, the surprise Sprint Cup winner last weekend at Talladega when he and Edwards made contact on the final lap, sending Edwards’ car airborne into the fronstretch, had another incident Friday night, costing Jeff Burton a top-10 finish.

Keselowski was running third and Burton was in the top five and gaining with 17 laps left when Keselowski made contact with Jason Leffler, with Burton getting caught up in the accident and hitting the wall. Keselowski continued on unscathed and finished fourth, while Burton wound 31st, 17 laps off the pace.

AP-ES-05-01-09 2259EDT

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