Kurt Busch took advantage of a strong restart to grab victory at Kobalt Tools 500 in Atlanta Motor Speedway in a gap of .482 seconds ahead of runner-up Matt Kenseth, terminating Jimmie Johnson's winning streak.
Still the race went 16 laps -- nearly 25 miles -- past its scheduled distance, after Edwards retaliated against Brad Keselowski for an earlier incident.
Juan Montoya, who was closing in on Busch near the end of the regulation 325 laps, finished third but lost his chance to battle for the victory when Edwards hit Keselowski's No. 12 Dodge on the frontstretch and sent it flying on Lap 323.
Keselowski's car landed on its roof, righted itself and slid into the Turn 1 wall. After extensive clean-up, NASCAR restarted the race on Lap 332 -- without Edwards who was black-flagged on Lap 326 -- with Busch assuming the lead from Clint Bowyer, who had taken the point on a two-tire pit stop under caution on Lap 324.
Before Busch could take the white flag, however, a seven-car pileup in Turn 3 caused the 11th caution of the race and set up the second try at the green-white-checkered.
"Even with all the restarts, I thought we had the strongest car," Busch quoted.
Busch claimed the 21st victory of his career and his first with crew chief Steve Addington, who joined Penske Racing after guiding Busch's brother, Kyle, to 12 victories in 2008 and '09 with Joe Gibbs Racing.
"With Steve Addington, all of his new ideas, I never knew how we could mesh them together and how soon we were able to do it. Even on those restarts at the end, I just felt like we had the car to beat." Kyle Busch said.
Johnson, climbed as high as third, but a bad pit stop and a scrape with Ryan Newman cost Johnson a chance to become the first driver since 2007 to make it three in a row when Johnson was four consecutive during the Chase.
Pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. lost the lead on the very first lap but was running near the front when a mysterious tire problem sent him to the pits on Lap 114 under a green flag. He radioed that a tire felt loose, but the crew found it fully inflated after making the change. It wasn't immediately clear what caused the problem, though the No. 88 team was able to rule out another problem with the axle, the issue that ruined Earnhardt's day at Fontana two weeks ago.
Junior returned to the track just as Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin blew a tire, which sent him spinning through the grass to bring out a caution flag. The unfortunate timing cost Earnhardt dearly; he slipped a lap down and never got back in the mix, though all the trouble at the end boosted him to 15th in the final standings.
His winless streak is now 61 races. Going back farther, Earnhardt has only one win in his last 138 races.
