“Phoenix … we probably could have won that race except I sped off pit road (over the speed limit) by .005 and that was just a killer. Talladega is a crapshoot anyway. Here this week it was meant to be.’’

 

Saturday’s win gives Kyle 15 Cup victories. He also has 24 Nationwide wins and 11 Camping World Truck wins.

            

That means he has 50 career wins in NASCAR’s top three series. His goal is 200 total.

           

“Hopefully, I can achieve that goal,’’ Kyle said. “I know it’s not 200 Cup victories like Richard Petty has but I think it would still be a pretty phenomenal mark for me.’’

 

For as good as things went for Kyle, they turned out poorly for teammate Denny Hamlin, who finished 14^th. Hamlin led a race-high 148 of the 400 laps but a bad pit stop doomed him.

 

He led entering the pits on lap 274 but one lug nut fell off and another had to be readjusted on the right front tire before it could be tightened, slowing the pit stop and costing Hamlin positions. He exited eighth. To try to make up for things later in the race, the team took two tires – one crew chief told me before the race you could take two tires on a stop but you would need to come in a short time later because those with four tires would blow you away over a long run. Hamlin took two tires on lap 308. He didn’t pit again and fell back in the field, losing track position.

 

The lug nut problem forced the team to make a decision that it really had to make but there weren’t enough cautions late in the race to help Hamlin maintain a spot in the top 10. So again he loses at Richmond. Remember last year in this race when he led 381 of 382 laps and had a flat tire and lost?

 

Asked if there’s anything he could take out of this race, Hamlin’s crew chief, Mike Ford said: “You don’t take anything out of it other than frustration.’’

 

Asked if he could put this race behind him, Ford said: “No. As a competitor you can’t let it go. You can say you put it behind, but you never put it behind.’’

 

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A FEW OTHER THINGS

 

            # Tony Stewart finished second and was in such a good mood (teammate Ryan Newman placed fourth) that Stewart even complimented Goodyear and its tires. This, the same guy that has ripped Goodyear so much over the years.

 

 

            “As odd as this is going to sound, I've been impressed with how hard Goodyear is working,’’ Stewart said. “They continue to not sit on their hands. I mean, they keep trying different things and keep trying to find combinations that make it better for us.’’

 

            # Jeff Burton finished third, coming back from an incident just past halfway with Dale Earnhardt Jr. The two made contact and Burton spun.

 

            “We were both kind of struggling,’’ Burton said. “I was on the outside. I had gotten underneath him. He was pretty loose. Then I got loose. He got back underneath me. We drove into three. He just got loose and came up the track.  I spun people out like that before. Just a racing incident. He was struggling. Looked really loose getting in the corner.                 

          “Junior and I don't have any problems.’’

 

 

# Casey Mears finished ninth in his first race with his new crew -- the guys who used to be with Kevin Harvick, including crew chief Todd Berrier. Harvick crashed and finished 34^th.

 

# Did you notice that Marcos Ambrose finished 11^th. For a guy known as a road racer, he’s figuring out these short tracks pretty quickly. He was 10^th at Bristol and 14^th at Martinsville.

 

# Jimmie Johnson finished 36. Let’s see, he had brake problems, got caught speeding on pit road, spun once and was in a wreck another time. Think that was about it for him. Of course it was hard to keep up with all his issues.

 

# Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 27^th. One can already hear those howling about he and his team.

 

# Sam Hornish Jr. finished a career-high sixth.

 

Top 15 Points after Richmond  

1.      Jeff Gordon ……… 1,441 points

2.      Kurt Busch ………...10 behind leader

3.      Tony Stewart ………39 behind leader

4.      Denny Hamlin ……..120 behind leader

5.      Kyle Busch …………127 behind leader

6.      Jimmie Johnson …….151 behind leader

7.      Jeff Burton ………….184 behind leader

8.      Clint Bowyer ………..229 behind leader

9.      Carl Edwards ………..237 behind leader

10. Ryan Newman ………243 behind leader

11. Greg Biffle …………..248 behind leader

12. Matt Kenseth ………..254 behind leader

13. David Reutimann ……285 behind leader

14. Juan Pablo Montoya …289 behind leader

15. Mark Martin …………315 behind leader