Kyle Busch wins third-straight race of 2018 at Richmond

Two different drivers have won three-straight races through the first nine races of the 2018 season.

Kyle Busch took the lead on a pit stop with less than 30 laps to go and held onto the lead through two additional restarts to win Saturday night’s race at Richmond. His win gives him three-straight victories after visiting victory lane at Texas and Bristol and he ties Kevin Harvick for the series wins lead this season.

Busch started 32nd and worked his way through the field with ease. It didn’t take long for Busch to make it to the top 10 and he was a mainstay there for the rest of the race.

But Busch didn’t challenge for the lead until he got the track position. And once he got the track position, he didn’t relinquish it.

[Takeaways from Richmond: The first 350 laps were tame]

“The pit crew tonight. They won this race for us,” Busch said. “They got us off pit road first those last two times that we came down for tires and got us where we needed to be.”

The win comes 10 years after Busch collided with Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Richmond as the two drivers were racing for the win late in the race. Busch and Junior talked about the incident on a podcast earlier in the week where Busch revealed he received death threats throughout the rest of the 2008 season afterward.

While Harvick and Busch may be tied for the series wins lead, Busch has the edge when it comes to points in the playoffs. Harvick received a points penalty after his Las Vegas win and doesn’t get to carry the playoff points he earned from the race into the postseason. Assuming Busch’s car passes inspection, he has 15 points for the playoffs already via wins.

He’s the points leader too and that carries a 10-point bonus as well. If Busch can keep this torrid pace up — or at least a semblance of it — he’s going to have a fairly easy path to the championship race at Homestead.

Defending Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. led a race-high 121 laps but finished 14th after late pit stop problems. Chase Elliott was second while Denny Hamlin finished third.

Full Results:

1. Kyle Busch
2. Chase Elliott
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Joey Logano
5. Kevin Harvick
6. Jimmie Johnson
7. Kyle Larson
8. Brad Keselowski
9. Clint Bowyer
10. Daniel Suarez
11. Kurt Busch
12. William Byron
13. Erik Jones
14. Martin Truex Jr.
15. Austin Dillon
16. Matt DiBenedetto
17. Aric Almirola
18. Alex Bowman
19. Jamie McMurray
20. Ty Dillon
21. Trevor Bayne
22. Ryan Blaney
23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
24. Paul Menard
25. Darrell Wallace Jr.
26. Chris Buescher
27. AJ Allmendinger
28. Ross Chastain
29. Kasey Kahne
30. Cole Whitt
31. Michael McDowell
32. Daniel Hemric
33. David Ragan
24. Landon Cassill
35. Gray Gaulding
36. Harrison Rhodes
37. Ryan Newman
38. Reed Sorenson

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter

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