Stewart and Edwards not a bit pleased with officiating, but Johnson takes his penalty in stride, on a curious night in Richmond

Kyle Busch smokes 'em in celebration, with post-race fireworks overhead....and some fireworks too back in the NASCAR garage

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   RICHMOND, Va.
   Jobbed?
   Robbed?
   Well, both Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards were not pleased with some of the officiating in Saturday night's Richmond 400, controversial calls that cost each man a very good shot at the win.
   Jimmie Johnson got a hard call that went against him too, taking him also out of the hunt, but Johnson conceded it was a mistake by his pit crew.
   So instead of a three-man battle for the win -- Edwards versus Stewart versus Johnson -- as most of the crowd of some 88,000 at Richmond International Raceway had watched develop, in the final moments it was all Kyle Busch, holding Dale Earnhardt Jr. at bay, to win a Sprint Cup tour event for the first time since last August.
   Edwards went to the NASCAR hauler after the race to discuss the crucial blackflag that went against him. But nothing apparently came of that.
   "We had to just agree to disagree, and that's the way it is," a frustrated Edwards said. "They run the sport, and they do the best job they can, and I drive a race car and do the very best job I can.
    "I'd rather not say what was said in there. This whole thing is very frustrating. I don't feel like we did the wrong thing."
    Johnson's crew misplayed loose tires twice during pit stops, and the second time NASCAR slapped him with a game-ending penalty by ordering him to the rear of the field for a restart. NASCAR ruled the right-rear tire was not in control of a crewmen after the tire change.
   Edwards himself drew the penalty that cost him a shot at the win, when NASCAR ruled he – though he said NASCAR had told him he was in fact the leader at the time – jumped Stewart on a restart. NASCAR blackflagged Edwards, ordering him to pit road for a 'pass through' penalty.  The call against Edwards drew an angry protest to NASCAR by crew chief Bob Osborne.
   Replays showed Edwards hitting the gas for the restart just as he and Stewart approached the white line demarcating the starting point. Stewart, on the inside, was very slow to start.
   Just who the leader was at that point was in some doubt, though not to Stewart.
   Even Busch said it was all confusing to him.
   "The restart and all what was going on -- Tony was the 'lucky dog,' but then they said 'No, he was ahead, because he came off pit road already.' So that made us the lucky dog.  I was like 'Man, that's a lucky break right there.'  That puts us right back in this thing.
    "What was funny is we were the lucky dog, but then there's so many 'wave-arounds' (drivers not pitting and then being given a free pass back to the lead lap) and everything that happened, we restarted right back in our same position, because they had to restart behind us.  
    "I was like 'All right, this is going really good.'
    "Then that was the point in the race I think where Stewart was driving away from him.  Every time I'd pass a lapped car he'd pass a lapped car.  There was always somebody in between us and I was always just a little bit too far behind.
     "And then I had no idea what caused the last caution.  I didn't know what it was.  Glad there was something somewhere."
     Have you got all that clear now?
    Good, because not many people trying to follow all that are even clear now about that confusing mess of 'lucky dogs,' 'wave-arounds,' restarts, scoring and all.
     
   Regardless, until the last caution Busch said Stewart clearly had him covered: "I was losing half a tenth to a tenth on every lap to Tony," Busch said.
   "He was just so fast.  
   "At that point I kept trying to stay with him there early in that run, to get him the pressure and use up his tires a little bit. And I could see him doing some of that.
   "But then my car just started getting a little bit too tight in the center and a little bit too loose off, where I started losing ground.
    "And once I about couldn't see him anymore, I figured 'Okay, I'm going to save what I've got here and just try to make it to the end.'
    "No catching Stewart without that caution."
    
    While Stewart was hot about that last caution, and Edwards was hot about his penalty, Johnson accepted his verdict.
    "I think a wheel got away," he said. "Equipment leaving the pit box required us to go to the tail end of the lead lap.  
     "We had a couple of little mistakes like that unfortunately.  
      "We had a really fast race car. We were pretty equal with the leaders. We could have run third; we could have won the race.  A great solid performance.
     "We have been junk here the last two or three times.  To come here and have a great night is very important for us."
    The penalty? "It's frustrating…but if you race long enough you get challenged," Johnson said. "Even when a race is going well, I've learned to not expect for it to continue to go well.
     "We did a decent job to get back to sixth."