Martin Truex Jr.’s hopes of pitching a perfect game in Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway are officially over as Kyle Busch took the win in Stage 2.
Busch won the race off of pit road in the caution break between Stage 1 and 2 and he never looked back. The No. 18 car paced the field for the next 97 laps.
Truex did pressure Busch for the Stage win late as lapped traffic kept the battle for the Stage win close.
Behind Busch and Truex was Denny Hamlin in third. Erik Jones made it an all Joe Gibbs Racing top-four in the Stage.
Pole-sitter Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-five finishers in Stage 2.
The resilient Ryan Newman came home sixth in the Stage as he continues to battle for position so he can move on to Round 2 of the Playoffs.
Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson finished out the top-10 running order.
Playoff contender Kyle Larson just missed out on finishing inside the top-10 as Johnson got around him on the final lap.
Kurt Busch (13th), Ryan Blaney (15th), Aric Almirola (16th), Joey Logano (20th), William Byron (22nd) and Alex Bowman (23rd) were Playoff drivers who finished outside the top-10 in Stage 2.
