'New' Kyle Busch proves he can win too

Minutes before turning 25, Kyle Busch drove to Victory Lane at Richmond International Raceway, and in the process proved a "New Kyle" is on the Sprint Cup scene.

Much like the Busch of old, Kyle was a dominant force from the start Saturday night. Starting from pole, he smoked the field over and led the first 140 of 400 laps. Jeff Gordon assumed the point for the first time on Lap 141 after Busch pitted, but by Lap 148 Busch was back up front and had lapped all but seven cars.

Shortly after that, though, things went south in a hurry.

During the second caution of the race, 18 cars that took advantage of the wave-around rule -- in which cars a lap down are allowed to get back on the lead lap if they opt not to pit after all lead lap cars do under caution -- and that returned the number of lead lap cars to 27 total, including "lucky dog" recipient Jimmie Johnson.

"It would have been great to keep that many cars a lap down," said crew chief Dave Rogers, who earned his first Cup victory. "It would have been selfish. Everybody behind us was going to pit. If we stay out, we keep all those guys down. Then the seven guys behind us are going to drive by us; we're going to lose our track position just to keep cars a lap down. It's not worth it."

To make matters worse, Busch temporarily lost the handling of his car midway through the race, which allowed Jeff Burton to take the lead at Lap 230. Gordon passed the No. 31 Chevrolet 20 circuits later and went on to lead 140 of the final 145 laps.

In the past, Busch may have lost his composure inside the race car and taken himself out of the race. But on Saturday he remained collected throughout the event. Despite his car getting dialed out, he calmly communicated with Rogers throughout the race. Through several stops and adjustments, Busch put himself in position for the win, bolting past Gordon on the outside on the final restart with five laps remaining and cruising to victory.

"We did it last year on my birthday," said Busch, who earned his 17th career Cup victory. "This year we got a birthday present early."

Busch acknowledged the outcome might have been different just a year ago. With age, the driver has learned the importance of patience behind the wheel.

"We've had cars that haven't been capable of top-fives or top-10s and we've gotten some top-fives and 10s with those cars," Busch said. "We've had cars we should have won, maybe Phoenix or somewhere else, and we ran 10th or 15th with those cars.

"It's frustrating to see those days when you run well and not really get what you deserve. But then you see the days where you struggle a little bit and you kind of steal one out of there. You wish they were all that way. But you got to give and take sometimes. I'm learning that a little bit more."

After this race last season, Busch had three wins but was fifth in the standings, 127 points out of first. While he's lacking the trophies this year, Busch has gained consistency that will make him a far better contender in the long run.

Down but not out

Jeff Gordon would prefer to reflect on the positives that his team continues to build on and not dwell on his new role as NASCAR bridesmaid.

Gordon's second-place finish at Richmond, his fourth top-five of the season, vaulted the No. 24 team four positions to sixth in the point standings.

"We're a team that's made huge strides from last year," Gordon said. "Even though we finished third in point last year, I don't feel we were near as competitive as we are right now.

"That's what I'm excited about. We're leading laps, a bunch of laps, at a lot of different types of tracks. I think our team is really on top of our game."

Gordon has led 599 laps this season. Last year he led a total of 827 circuits.

Numbers game Carl Edwards led his first lap and posted his first top-five of the season in the Crown Royal 400. The last time he had been at the point was at Talladega 12 races ago. Kyle Busch led more laps (226) on Saturday night than he had in the first nine races of the season combined. Earnhardt Childress Racing engines powered Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Juan Pablo Montoya to finishes of sixth or better. Martin Truex Jr.'s seventh-place finish at Richmond was his fourth top-10 of the season. His average finish in the past six races is 10.3. "The Franchise," aka Dale Earnhardt Jr., finished 32nd -- three laps off the pace.

Say what?

Jeff Gordon on being consistent yet winless in the last 39 races:

"I've been doing this long enough to know they don't give out trophies for any lap other than the last one."