Busch wins at Atlanta after crashes set up restarts

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Kurt Busch won two races Sunday: the Kobalt Tools 500 and the Carl Edwards 25.

In a race that went 16 laps -- nearly 25 miles -- past its scheduled distance, after Edwards retaliated against Brad Keselowski for an incident earlier in Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Busch took advantage of a strong restart to grab the lead during the second attempt at a green-white-checkered and crossed the finish line .482 seconds ahead of runner-up Matt Kenseth.

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," said Busch, who snapped Jimmie Johnson's two-race winning streak.

Edwards' aggression toward Keselowski was payback for a Lap 40 wreck in Turn 2, where Edwards felt Keselowski didn't give him enough room.

The wreck, with Keselowski running sixth at the time, was eerily similar to a collision involving the two drivers last April at Talladega, where Keselowski held his line at the bottom of the track and won the race after Edwards No. 99 Ford flew into the catchfence, injuring eight spectators.

Busch was quick to come to the defense of Keselowski, who's in his first full-time Sprint Cup season with Penske Racing.

"To see a guy that's a hundred laps down take out a guy that's run really well --that was a tough pill to swallow," Busch said. "I feel like what happened out on the race track is those two drivers' business, [but] I feel like I have to be in my teammate's corner. When Roger Penske's stuff is torn up, I feel bad about it."

Busch claimed the 21st victory of his career and his first with crew chief Steve Addington, who joined Penske Racing during the offseason 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," Busch said. "Even on those restarts at the end, I just felt like we had the car to beat."

Fourth-place finisher Kasey Kahne led the most laps (144), but his car tightened at the end of the race. Paul Menard ran fifth and A.J. Allmendinger sixth, giving Richard Petty Motorsports a 4-5-6 finish, the organization's best result since announcing a switch from Dodge to Ford late last year.

Brian Vickers, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick and Scott Speed completed the top 10.

Johnson, the four-time defending Cup Series champion, was coming off wins at Fontana and Las Vegas. He climbed into contention again, getting 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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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• Crew chief Addington finds vindication in Atlanta
• Those with tire problems point finger at Goodyear
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