* Kyle Busch won the Russ Friedman 400 at Richmond International Raceway. It was his 15th victory in his 160th Cup series start and his third win in 2009; he also scored victories at Las Vegas and Bristol. * Busch scored his first victory in nine races at Richmond. He had finished second at Bristol three previous times. He became the 46th different winner in 106 Cup races at Richmond. * Busch, who started 14th, scored his third career short-track victory in 27 such races. * Busch, 24, became just the second driver in Cup series history to win on his birthday. Cale Yarborough, whose birthday is March 27, did so twice. Busch is the youngest driver in NASCAR history to score 15 wins. He also is the youngest to win a Cup race at Richmond. Jeff Gordon was 24 years, 6 months, 28 days old when he won at Richmond on March 3, 1996. * Busch became the third driver to score a weekend sweep at Richmond, joining Harry Gant (Sept. 6-7, 1991) and Kevin Harvick (Sept. 8-9, 2006). Busch won a benefit race put together by fellow racer Denny Hamlin at Southside Speedway in Virginia on Thursday night, the Nationwide race at Richmond on Friday night and the Cup race. * Busch tied Ned Jarrett, Junior Johnson and Greg Biffle with 50 combined NASCAR wins — 11th all time. * This was the 22nd of 106 races at Richmond to be won from a starting position outside the top 10 (21 percent). * Busch’s victory is the 71st Cup win by Joe Gibbs Racing, which ranks seventh all time. Gibbs scored its fourth victory at Richmond, where Stewart has won three times and Busch has won once. * Busch led three times for 53 laps Saturday night, including the final 49. * Hamlin led the most laps (148). He has led laps in all seven of his races at Richmond. The driver leading the most laps has failed to win the past seven races at Richmond. For the sixth time in his career and his second time at Richmond, Hamlin led the most laps of a race yet didn’t win. * The driver leading at the midpoint of the race has failed to win the past eight races at Richmond. Hamlin led 381 laps at Richmond one year ago and finished 24th. * Tony Stewart (second) posted his seventh top-10 finish in 2009. It marked his fifth straight top-10 at Richmond. He climbed from fourth to third in points. He has ranked eighth or better in the standings all season. * This was the third victory for Toyota in 2009. Chevrolet has four, Ford has two and Dodge has one. * Jeff Burton (third) tied his best finish in 2009 set at Las Vegas. Burton has scored eight straight top-15 finishes. * Ryan Newman (fourth) scored his fourth top-10 finish in 2009, all in the past six races. He climbed from 13th to 10th in the points standings, making his first appearance among the top 12 since he ranked 11th after the Richmond race in May one year ago. For the first time, Stewart-Haas Racing drivers (Stewart and Newman) scored top-5 finishes in the same race. * Jeff Gordon (eighth) took over as the leader of the Cup standings, by 10 points over Kurt Busch, who finished 12th. Gordon has finished 13th or better in eight of the 10 races this season. * Casey Mears (ninth) posted his best finish of the season. * David Reutimann (28th) posted his third finish outside the top 20 in 2009. He dropped from 11th to 13th in the points standings. He ranked 13th after Daytona and had ranked among the top 12 in the past eight races. * Bobby Labonte (31st) has been running at the finish in the past 21 races at Richmond, the longest current streak. * The 15 caution periods tied the record at Richmond. * The top 10 consisted of seven Chevrolets, one Toyota, one Dodge and one Ford.(ESPN)(5-5-2009)
