Kyle Busch had an uncharacteristically poor starting spot for Saturday's race at the Toyota Owners 400, but he ended the night right where he did the past two races — in victory lane.
Busch survived a trio of late cautions that bunched the field in the final two-dozen laps, pulling away in overtime to win his third successive NASCAR triumph.
It was Busch's 46th career victory and fifth win at Richmond after finishing ahead of Chase Elliot and Denny Hamlin.
After a terrible qualifying run, Busch started the race 32nd. He had never won a race starting lower than 30th.
Busch wasted no time advancing through the field, moving into the top 10 early in the first stage.
Joey Logano won the first two stages in a race that was remarkably caution-free until the final laps. But there were three cautions in the final two-dozen laps.
After a late round of pitstops during a caution, Busch emerged in the lead when the race restarted with 22 laps to go.
Following another caution a few laps later, the leaders came down pit road again, and Busch once again left the pits in the lead.
"The pit crew tonight won this race for us tonight," Busch said. "They got us off pit road first twice [late]."
After yet another caution forced overtime, Busch restarted in the lead, followed by Denny Hamlin, Elliott, Kevin Harvick and Logano. The former immediately pulled away, leaving everyone else running for second.
Elliott made a nice move in overtime to finish second, his eighth career runner-up finish, while defending series champion Martin Truex Jr. had trouble on the pitstop before overtime and finished 14th.
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