Biffle beat Leffler to the stripe by .338 seconds in a green-white-checkered-flag finish to win his second Nationwide race of the season and the 20th of his career. Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick completed the top five.

Biffle and Leffler finished 1-2 on old tires after 14 of 17 lead-lap cars came to the pits for at least two tires under caution on Lap 181.

In a dramatic reversal, Kyle Busch, who finished 10th, wrested the series points lead from Carl Edwards, who came home 33rd. Busch leads Edwards by 47 points as the series heads for Talladega on April 25.

The late-race strategic calls made the difference for both Leffler and Biffle.

“The pit and [crew chief] Eddie [Pardue] really won this race,” Biffle said. “That call at the end, I was with Eddie on staying out. I thought everybody came, and I thought I’d have new tires right on my bumper. All I needed was a couple cars [behind me on old tires], because these tires — once they cool down — I think I’d have been OK, if we went green the whole way. Once I was out front, my car was really good.”

Leffler said he couldn’t catch Biffle once he pulled away on the late-race restarts. Leffler was more worried about Keselowski, who took on right-side tires on his final stop, restarted fourth on Lap 185 and passed Burney Lamar for the third position.

“We were running eighth there, and they all pitted,” Leffler said. “We didn’t even think about pitting — track position was so important. There was going to be about 20 laps left, and in these Nationwide races, it seems like when you have 20 laps left, you’re only going to run about five under green.”

The fortunes of Busch and Edwards turned radically near the midpoint of the race. Busch had lost two laps during a green-flag pit stop on Lap 50 because of a slow leak in the right-front tire of the No. 18 Toyota.

Busch regained one lap under green, passing Edwards on Lap 95. At that juncture, Edwards reported a skip in his engine, which his team was unable to repair under caution. Busch regained his lost lap with a free pass as the first car one lap down under the fourth caution of the race on Lap 109.

Moments after the restart on Lap 114, Edwards brought his car to the garage, where the crew diagnosed a problem with a valve spring on the No. 60 Ford. Edwards lost 25 laps while the team, led by Roush, rigged a makeshift repair for the broken part.

While Edwards languished in the garage, Busch took advantage of his free pass, working his way back to eighth before NASCAR called the fifth caution of the race for debris on Lap 149. He restarted eighth on Lap 154 after a pit stop and gained two more spots on that circuit, before John Wes Townley’s's crash caused the sixth caution.

In the closing laps of the race, Busch faded to his 10th-place finish.

Hookscenter.com wire report.

He lives his life like a man half of his age.

And drives like it, too.

The 50-year-old Martin became the third-oldest winner in NASCAR history Saturday night, snapping a 97-race winless streak with a dominating run at Phoenix International Raceway.

“I told the guys I don’t have any problem keeping up with a 25-year-old — at least not for the next 15 minutes,” Martin said. “I feel really good.”

Martin, who has waffled on retirement several times in the last four years, started from the pole and led 157 of 312 laps. But a late caution erased his 4-second lead over Tony Stewart with 11 laps to go, sending the leaders into the pits and putting his victory on the line.

Ryan Newman stayed on track to assume the lead, and Martin won a frantic race off pit road to emerge in second. But he had Stewart — Newman’s car owner and teammate — right behind him, and only six laps to race to the front.

Martin only needed about 6 seconds.

Martin shot past Newman on the restart, then drove away to his first win since Kansas in 2005.

The last 50-year-old to win a Cup race was Morgan Shepherd in 1993 at Atlanta. Harry Gant holds the record as the oldest driver to win a Cup race. He was 52 when he won at Michigan in 1992.

Before Martin, only three drivers 50 or older won Cup races: Gant, Shepherd and Bobby Allison.

“Age is irrelevant with Mark,” crew chief Alan Gustafson said. “I don’t even think about it. It doesn’t even come into the equation. Mark’s enthusiasm, his energy, his drive … he’s incredible. He’s as good as any of them.”

Martin was visited by NASCAR president Mike Helton and several competitors in Victory Lane, including former boss Jack Roush and former teammates Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth.

It was Martin’s 36th career victory, but first without Roush. He spent 18 years driving for Roush, but left after the 2006 season because he had planned to retire at the end of that season, but Roush had filled his seat before he changed his mind.

“He seemed genuinely happy,” Martin said of Roush’s Victory Lane visit.

So did everyone else.

“There’s no shame in losing to a guy like Mark Martin,” said Stewart, who finished second. “I am really happy for Mark. Nobody works harder than Mark to be fit, to stay in shape and be ready to go.”

Busch was third, followed by Jimmie Johnson and Biffle.

The praise poured in from every corner of the garage for Martin, who is widely considered to be the greatest NASCAR driver to never win a championship.

“The guy has been at the top of his game in the sport for 30 years,” said Busch, who raced with Martin at Roush. “He’s a tremendous athlete, a tremendous individual and he’s definitely going to put together.”

That elusive Cup title is what lured him to drive for Rick Hendrick this year for his first full season in three years. He spent the last two years in a part-time ride for Dale Earnhardt Inc., which re-energized him for another grueling 10-month season. After finishing second in the championship race a maddening four times, Hendrick offered him the No. 5 Chevrolet and likely his best — and final — shot at a title.

But his optimism was dashed after horrendous early season luck sabotaged strong cars and dropped Martin to 34th in the standings. His victory pushed five spots from 18th to 13th, and he’s now just nine points out of the final qualifying spot for the Chase for the championship.

He didn’t want to discuss his championship hopes afterward.

“I am not going to ruin a good time by worrying about,” he said. “Let me enjoy this.”

Martin received a congratulatory phone call in Victory Lane from Hendrick, who wasn’t on hand to see an HMS driver win for the third straight race. Johnson won at Martinsville and Jeff Gordon won at Texas.

“He just congratulated me, man,” Martin said of the phone call. “He makes dreams come true.”

Martin celebrated his win with a backward victory lap as a tribute to his late friend Alan Kulwicki.

“You guys knew I wasn’t going to do a burnout,” he joked.

Hookscenter.com wire report.

Busch won his third consecutive Nationwide race in Texas with another dominating performance Saturday, leading a race-record 178 of 200 laps to win the O’Reilly 300 even though he insisted it wasn’t as easy as it looked.

“I was uncomfortable because of the handling of the car, just inconsistent at times,” Busch said. “My feet got hot. My body was fine, my back was OK, my head was fine.”

Still not enough problems to keep him from returning to Victory Lane.

Busch finished 1.447 seconds ahead of Tony Stewart, who made a late charge from seventh with four new tires after a caution on lap 188. Brad Keselowski, forced to start 42nd in a backup car, finished third.

The winning streak at Texas began with Busch sweeping both races last year when he led 300 of 400 laps. This time, he became the first polesitter to win any of the 17 Nationwide races at the 1½-mile, high-banked track.

Busch led the first 56 laps in his Joe Gibbs-owned Toyota, building a six-second lead over Jeff Burton before the first pit stop. Before a caution a dozen laps later, Busch had already regained a seven-second lead.

The only time Busch was passed on the track was when he got loose and Burton went by him on the 90th lap. By lap 106, Busch was back in front to stay.

Keselowski, who wrecked the primary No. 88 Chevrolet owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in qualifying, worked his way through the field and by lap 170 was second. And he was closing the gap when rookie John Wes Townley’s accident brought the final caution.

“The 88 was coming there at the end. He was catching me there,” Busch said. “If we did not get a caution like we did, it probably would have been a whale of a show.”

Busch didn’t go into the pit during the caution, shooting back on to the track after initially acting like he would. Keselowski stayed right behind him.

But Stewart did pit because he still had a new set of tires, and that was almost enough.

When the race restarted with seven laps left, Busch charged ahead while Keselowski and Joey Logano wound up side-by-side batting for second. But it was Stewart taking over second three laps later, though he didn’t have enough laps left to catch Busch without another caution.

“I got a good restart,” Keselowski said. “I was doing all I could to keep up with him.”

Logano fell back after making contact with series points leader Carl Edwards and finished 12th. Edwards was running fourth at the final caution, and maintained his points lead despite dropping to an 18th-place finish.

David Ragan ended fourth, followed by Paul Menard, Matt Kenseth, Mike Bliss and Jeff Burton. David Reutimann, on the pole for the Sprint Cup race Sunday, was ninth.

Hookscenter.com wire report.

No, not a backflip a la Carl Edwards.

After the obligatory burnout on the frontstretch for his first victory ever at Texas, one that ended his career-high 47-race winless drought in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Gordon pulled up to the start-finish line and got the checkered flag to take on a long-awaited victory lap.

“It was the coolest. It was like winning for the very first time,” Gordon said. “Things have changed since I won a race … That’s the first time I’ve ever carried a checkered flag in NASCAR. I used to do that in quarter-midgets when I was 8.”

Then, after doing another burnout on the backstretch, Gordon finally got to drive into Victory Lane at Texas, where winners get cowboy hats and fire six-shooters into the air.

“This is a huge relief, but also very exciting,” Gordon said. “If we can win at Texas, I feel like we can win anywhere.”

Gordon, already the season points leader with four top-five finishes in the first six races, beat Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson to win for the first time on the 1½-mile high-banked Texas track — leaving only one active track he hasn’t won in his No. 24 Chevrolet.

Edwards, who was going for three in a row at Texas after last year getting to do his celebratory backflips twice by sweeping both races, finished 10th after passing Gordon to lead only nine laps late in the race.

It was the 17th Cup race at Texas, the track where the four-time Cup champion has the only two last-place finishes in his 552 career starts. One of the 43rd-place finishes came last spring before he was the runner-up to Edwards in the fall race after winning the pole.

“How ironic is this that when we go into this streak and we end it here in Texas, a place that’s just eluded us for so long,” Gordon said. “Incredible team effort. This whole year has been amazing. What a great car. I’ve never had a car like this at Texas. We finally had one and put it in position.”

The only track Gordon now hasn’t won at is Homestead. He will have to wait until the season finale in November for a chance to change that.

Not only was it his first victory in the Lone Star state, it was the first time Gordon had won anywhere since October 2007 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte.

During interviews in Victory Lane at Texas, Gordon had to sneak a peek at the logos on his car to remind himself of everybody he needed to thank. It had been a long time, especially by his standards.

Rick Hendrick wasn’t there, so Gordon tried to talked to him by cell phone from Victory Lane. Also missing were his wife and daughter.

“I’m just thrilled. I can’t wait to get home to Ingrid and Ella,” Gordon said. “I know [Ella] was saying ‘Go poppy go’ all day long. I hate that they couldn’t come.”

Gordon won by 0.542 seconds with an average speed of 146.372 mph for his 82nd career victory, one behind Cale Yarborough for fifth on the all-time list. Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip are tied for third on that list with 84 victories.

Edwards was leading when the final caution came out because David Stremme got loose and spun coming out of the third turn with 30 laps to go in the 334-lap race.

But Edwards’ crew had problems changing tires and he dropped 10 spots to 11th coming off pit row. Gordon had a flawless stop, moving from third to first.

“They don’t yell at me when I hit the wall so it is not my position to be mad at them,” Edwards said. “We just have to do whatever we can to fix it.”

Gordon stayed in front the rest of the way though he was pushed by Johnson in the No. 48 car that had clinched two Sprint Cup season championships since Gordon last won a race.

“I ran Jeff’s line, put pressure on him,” Johnson said. “He didn’t make any mistakes. I could only get so close.”

What if Johnson had been able to pass Gordon, the teammate who owns his car?

“As a friend, I would have felt bad. As a competitor, I would have been excited,” Johnson said. “If I’m not going to win it, I want one of my teammates and especially one of my friends. As a friend, I’m definitely happy for Jeff.”

Johnson moved up two spots to second in season points, 162 behind Gordon before the series takes next weekend off for Easter.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. took only right-side tires and went from 12th to first on a restart with 76 laps to go.

But Earnhardt quickly lost that lead between turns one and two when Kyle Busch, trying to regain a lost lap, got loose and bumped him. Earnhardt got pushed to the top of the track, allowing Gordon to charge ahead, and wound up sliding all the way to 20th.

Gordon was still holding the lead with 39 laps left when he got caught in traffic and Edwards slid under him into first. Tony Stewart got past Gordon a few laps later and that was the running order when Stremme spun out.

Greg Biffle finished third, followed by Stewart and Matt Kenseth. Edwards finished a spot ahead of polesitter David Reutimann.

Reutimann, driving a No. 00 Toyota for Michael Waltrip, didn’t even lead the first lap. Gordon did, passing him as they crossed the start-finish-line for the first time.

Gordon led six times for 105 laps in a race that featured 28 lead changes, nine more than any other Cup race this season and one short of the Texas record.

Gordon led the first seven laps, but gave up the lead because of some handling issues with his car. But he was never too far from the front, never out of the top 10.

Biffle, led three times for 93 laps and his Roush Fenway teammate Kenseth had three leads for 55 laps. With Edwards, Roush had three drivers in the top 10 following a three-race span where the team had only two top-10 finishes.

Hookscenter.com wire report.

Kenseth started 10th but dropped to 21st before the Goody’s 500 was 10 laps old.

During pit stops after 42 laps, Kenseth’s team was cited by NASCAR officials on pit road for losing control of one of the tires that had just been removed from his Ford.

NASCAR said it informed Kenseth’s team that it was being penalized and sent to the tail end of the longest line on the restart, but Kenseth’s team said it never got the message.

The miscommunication proved costly.

When Kenseth got back on the track and failed to heed the call to drop to the back, NASCAR black flagged him, forcing him to drive down pit road at the pit road speed of 30 miles per hour while the field zoomed by under a green flag, putting him a lap down when he returned.

He never recovered, finishing 23rd.

“The unfortunate thing is I wasn’t clear the head official said we had to come in,” Kenseth’s crew chief, Drew Blickensderfer said. “I thought he was telling us, ‘It was close. Make sure it doesn’t happen again.’ That type of thing, and it wasn’t. It was, ‘You messed up the rule,’ so we’ve got to make sure we get our tires back. We can’t have mistakes like that.”

Kenseth has finished 43rd, 12th, 33rd and 23rd in the past four races, and he’s fallen from leading the points to 12th, just seven ahead of No. 13 Jeff Burton.

Hookscenter.com wire report.

To that end, Earnhardt and much of the brainpower at Hendrick Motorsports held a meeting recently to air their views and try to stumble on something that would bring improvement.

Earnhardt is 19th in points after five races.

“We talked about a lot of little stuff we could do differently or try,” Earnhardt said Friday at Martinsville. “We looked at some of the methods and some of the ways that they have had success in the past and we just talked about some ways we could communicate better.”

The ‘we’ included Hendrick competition directors Ken Howes and Doug Duchardt and engineer Brian Whitesell, some of the key players in Hendrick’s always successful organization.

“It was a good and constructive meeting,” Earnhardt said.

“Just trying to give those guys an opportunity to voice their opinions on the situation and take what they say and try to understand it and try to make out team better,” he said.

Busch, who is fourth in points, has said that he’s pleased to be doing better than the driver that replaced him with Hendrick last year, and Earnhardt said Busch has a right to boast. The younger Busch won 21 races in the top three series last year; Earnhardt won one.

“I wouldn’t trade positions with him, though,” Earnhardt said. “I like where I’m at and I like my owner and I like my position and I like my opportunity. But right now, he has every right to say what he wants and he’s been able to back it up on the track.”

Hookscenter.com wire report.

It marked Stewart’s fourth top-10 finish just six races into the 2009 season – his 11th year in Sprint Cup but first as a driver/owner with Stewart-Haas Racing.

“I’m real proud of the guys on this Old Spice/Office Depot team,” said Stewart, who now has eight top-five finishes in 21 career Sprint Cup starts at Martinsville.  “We had a good car all day long.  I just don’t think we had enough to get by Denny (Hamlin) or Jimmie (Johnson).”

Johnson, the three-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion, ended up beating Hamlin by .774 of a second to win the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500.  But Stewart made his presence known from the onset of the 500-lap race, and it began when he started seventh after the field was set by owner points after Friday’s qualifying session was canceled due to rain. 

Throughout the three-and-a-half-hour race, Stewart never left the top-10.  He kept Johnson, Hamlin and Jeff Gordon honest, who combined led 485 laps.  Stewart lurked while never leading a lap. 

“We struggled in one part of the corner to get it to rotate right past the center,” said Stewart, who completed just his sixth race with Darian Grubb as his crew chief – only the second crew chief Stewart has ever worked with in Sprint Cup.  “That was pretty much what we fought two thirds of Friday’s practice, and then that’s what we fought the majority of the day today.  I could see Denny, Jeff and Jimmie’s cars were really good in that area.  That’s something that I know you’ve got to be good at.

“I felt like Darian made good calls.  There were times during the race he was making changes that I questioned, but they were better and made the car work.  He’s really good.  The thing is, he’s very sure of himself.  He’s very sure of his decisions.  Jimmie and Denny both were a little bit better at the end of the race than we were.  I’m not sure if I got ahead of them that I was going to be able to hold it.  But we had a solid top-five car for sure.”

Stewart’s teammate, Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala SS, finished sixth to mark the first time in Stewart-Haas Racing’s brief history that both of its drivers finished in the top-10.

“We had a good day today.  I’m happy for the Old Spice/Office Depot guys and I’m really happy for Ryan and the U.S. Army guys,” said Stewart as he proudly wore his owner hat.  “I don’t know that it’s really gelling, because we’ve just been like this from day one.  It’s just kind of figuring things out.  Ryan’s learning a new package, I’m learning a new package, and it’s learning what each of us wants.

“It’s coming.  It just takes time.  It’s like we say every Monday in our competition meeting.  We’ve just got to build a database first.  Once we get that established, then I think the second time we come around, we’re going to be a little better yet.”

Stewart continues to lead the Stewart-Haas Racing driver lineup in the championship point race, as his third-place finish kept him seventh in the standings after round six of 36.  Newman made a big gain with his sixth-place run, vaulting nine spots to 18th in the standings.  Stewart is 161 markers arrears series leader Gordon while Newman is 334 points out of first.

Johnson’s victory in the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 was the 41st of his Sprint Cup career, his first of the season and his sixth at Martinsville.  Gordon finished fourth behind Stewart, while Clint Bowyer, Newman, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., A.J. Allmendinger and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-10.

There were 12 caution periods for 66 laps, with just four drivers failing to finish the race.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the April 5 Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.  The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 1:30 p.m.

Hookscenter.com wire report.

Johnson, dubbed “Mr. Martinsville” by Jeff Gordon, lived up to his moniker, winning for the fifth time in the last six races on the smallest, trickiest track in the series. It was his sixth victory at the 0.526-mile oval, second only to Gordon’s seven among active drivers.

Hamlin, the defending race champion, never challenged Johnson after he slid high into the banking after the bump and pass, and his winless streak extended to 32 races.

Hamlin finished second, followed by Tony Stewart, Gordon and Clint Bowyer.

The victory was the 18th for Hendrick Motorsports at Martinsville, where a victory by Geoff Bodine 25 years ago gave the fledgling company a needed boost, and the 10th in the last 13 races. Johnson has won six of those, and Gordon has won the other four.

Johnson’s 41st career victory came after it looked like Hamlin had outfoxed him.

The Virginia native ducked inside Johnson on a restart with 45 laps to go, gaining the position he needed to take the lead, and held it through three restarts before Johnson caught him on the backstretch on the 485th lap. From the outside, Hamlin tried to cut down in front of Johnson, bringing the contact that sent him sideways up the banking.

Johnson gathered control and grabbed the lead, while Hamlin kept his car from hitting the wall and tried to give chase, but Johnson pulled away easily and coasted to victory.

“He tried to put the squeeze on me and I was up on the curb and sliding and we got together,” Johnson said in Victory Lane, before getting a bear hug from Hendrick.

“He did a helluva job saving it,” Johnson said of Hamlin.

Hamlin said he bore Johnson no ill will, but will look forward to exacting his revenge.

“I would have done the same to him and if it comes back around, I will do the same thing,” he said. “It’s just the way it is. At Martinsville, you’ve got to battle for every inch.”

For Johnson, the finish was not surprising considering his record at Martinsville, but it was since Hamlin and Gordon had dominated the first 428 laps. Gordon led 147 early, and Hamlin led almost all of the rest until emerging second with 72 laps remaining.

Gordon, who started on the pole for the eighth time at the track when qualifying was rained out and the starting lineup was set on points, ran in the top five for most of the day, but still saw his winless streak extend to a career-high 47 races.

He did remain the points leader by 89 over Bowyer.

Hookscenter.com wire report.

When he emerged, life as he knew it would never be the same.

Geoff Bodine, the driver who ached for an opportunity to race, and Harry Hyde, the mechanical whiz who convinced Hendrick he could build a winning race car, had proven it at the track in southwest Virginia, giving the car dealer his first NASCAR victory as an owner.

There have been 174 more victories since, as well as eight Sprint Cup Series championships, making Hendrick one of the dominant figures in a sport he almost abandoned.

“Had we not won that race 25 years ago, Hendrick Motorsports would not be here today,” Hendrick said this week.

“A couple of weeks before, we were going to have to shut the team down because we had no sponsor,” Hendrick said. “I told Harry we absolutely were going to quit two races before that. And we went on and won Martinsville and picked up enough help to make it through the year.”

It helped that Bodine won twice more before the season was finished, and Hendrick was on his way.

“In some ways, it feels like it was yesterday,” he said, “and then you look back at all the drivers and the people that have been involved, and it feels like it was a long time ago.”

Those early years included some of the biggest names in racing: Benny Parsons, Darrell Waltrip, Tim Richmond and Ricky Rudd.

Now, he boasts four of the biggest names in the racing – Jeff Gordon, a four-time series champion; Jimmie Johnson, the winner of the last three championships; Dale Earnhardt Jr., the most popular driver in the series; and Mark Martin, who came on board for this season.

“I think that everyone that works for him wants to succeed for him,” Martin said.

He drives the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick, the same number car that Bodine drove into Victory Lane back in 1984, and would like to take the checkered flag Sunday for Hendrick.

But he’ll have to get past his teammates who have dominated the 0.526-mile oval. Gordon has seven wins here and Johnson has five, including four of the last five races.

For all the good memories at Martinsville, the track is also a reminder of perhaps Hendrick’s darkest day. In October 2004, son Ricky, brother John and eight others were killed when a Hendrick plane crashed on fog-shrouded Bull Mountain nearby.

Hendrick, a native of Palmer Springs who grew up coming to races at the track, said he can’t fly over Bull Mountain on a clear day without looking for the 14-foot crossed placed at the crash site. And he always asks himself if he wants to be at the track on race day.

“And then,” he said, “when I start thinking about it, it’s tougher being at home than it is being there, too, because it’s just then that you know you should be there with them.”

Hookscenter.com wire report.

A day later, he drove it to Victory Lane.

Busch bounced back from one of his many Bristol heartbreaks with a dominating win Sunday, leading 378 of 503 laps for his second Sprint Cup Series victory of the season. Ironically, it was his crew that deserved much of the credit.

His Joe Gibbs Racing team got him out front ahead of teammate Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson on the final pit stop – critical track position that helped him hang on for the win.

“I told the ladies to `Man up, get the job done on the last stop,’ which they did,” Busch said. “I’m proud of them for doing that. When the time mattered most, they got the job done.”

Many of those team members were on his crew Saturday in the Nationwide Series race, which Busch also dominated before a pit road miscue took him out of contention. He led a race-high 157 laps and went into the pits on the final stop, only to be penalized by NASCAR when his crew let a tire slip away. He wound up sixth and showed his displeasure by refusing to drive his car back to his team truck after the race.

His crew had to retrieve it themselves from Turn 3. But if there were any lingering hard feelings, no one noticed.

“They appreciate what I do behind the wheel. I appreciate what they do on pit road. That’s a given in any team,” Busch said. “Those guys should hang their head for (Saturday), but then wake up the next morning rejuvenated and ready to go.

“There’s ways to get better in this sport, and the only way to do that is to jump back out there. It’s basically reviewing your fear. You just get back out there and do it over again.”

The win also was rewarding for Busch because he’s had so many slip away on the .533-mile bullring. Two of his near misses were last season, when he lost his power steering while leading last spring and was bumped from the front in August by Carl Edwards after leading 415 laps.

“We should have won here last fall, we should have won here yesterday,” Busch said. “This place probably owes me a few. But you can never ask a race track to pay you back. You just have to just keep working on it.”

Busch has now won a race in at least one of NASCAR’s top three series every weekend this season. It started with a victory in the non-points qualifying race at Daytona and followed with wins in the Truck and Nationwide Series at California, the Cup race at Las Vegas, and the Nationwide race at Atlanta.

Track position was critical as the race wound down, and Hamlin knew his best chance at catching his teammate was on pit road. Although his crew moved him from third to second on the final stop, it wasn’t enough and he had to settle for a second-place finish.

“He just has a way of taking off really, really good on the short run,” Hamlin said. “I knew unless we got out on pit road ahead of him on that last pit stop, it was going to be tough.”

Hamlin has had his own heartbreak at Bristol – he led 98 laps last spring and was headed to the win when a fuel pickup problem cost him the victory. In August he finished third, again behind Busch.

Defending three-time series champion Jimmie Johnson was third in a Chevrolet to tie his career-best Bristol finish, back in 2004. Johnson had devoted a good deal of time to figuring out why he’s struggled at Bristol, and the homework with crew chief Chad Knaus clearly paid off.

“What a day for us. I wish we had 500 more laps to go,” he said. “I have to thank Chad and the engineering staff for sitting me down a couple weeks ago to look at this race track and what I need here. I made my wish list and they gave me what I needed.”

Jeff Gordon, his teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, was fourth.

Kasey Kahne was fifth in a Dodge and followed by polesitter Mark Martin, Ryan Newman, defending race winner Jeff Burton and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Marcos Ambrose, in the spotlight after his gas man chased a tire across pit road two weeks ago at Atlanta, finished 10th.

A Busch brother has won the past three races. Kyle Busch won at Las Vegas earlier this month, and Kurt followed it with a win at Atlanta. Kurt Busch, a five-time Bristol winner, finished 11th on Sunday.

Travis Kvapil finished 18th in what was likely his final race for Yates Racing. The No. 28 team probably will be closed down on Monday morning due to a lack of sponsorship, making it the first casualty this year of the weakened economy. Several teams were shuttered last season as sponsorship became difficult to find during the economic crisis.

Yates racing general manager Max Jones said before the race he’d bring the No. 28 team back to the track if funding came through, but the team had paid out of pocket for the first five races this season and couldn’t afford to do so any longer. Bobby Labonte and Paul Menard also drive for Yates, but have full sponsorship.

Hookscenter.com wire report.