"This M&M’s Toyota Camry was awesome tonight." - Kyle Busch

Déjà vu all over again at Richmond as Kyle Busch holds off Kevin Harvick to win the Federated Auto Parts 400

It's safe to say Kyle Busch loves driving at Richmond Raceway. The NASCAR regular season champ swept the season series at Richmond by winning the Federated Auto Part 400 Saturday night. Neither a damaged car from scraping a wall during qualifying nor starting at the back of the field for failing an inspection could stop the No. 18 car.

"Yeah, I’m not going to qualify here anymore (laughter)," said Busch. "It’s a waste of time for us. I don’t know why, I just cannot qualify here, but we’ve got a really good race car when it comes down time to have a race and especially the later it gets."

The victory ties Busch with Kevin Harvick for the most in the Cup Series this season with seven and is the 50th win of his career, which ties him with Junior Johnson & Ned Jarrett for 11th place on the all-time victory list. More importantly it punches his ticket into the second round of the NASCAR playoffs.

"I can’t thank (crew chief) Adam Stevens and all my guys enough," said Busch. "Great job at working on this thing and getting it put back together today and being able to get it ready for tonight to be a great race car."

When the green flag dropped, it looked like Martin Truex Jr. might finally pick up his first Richmond victory. Truex won Stage One and Stage Two as he completely dominated the field. Then, just like the spring race, pit-stop issues reared their ugly head. An uncontrolled tire penalty after the Stage Two caution dropped Truex from the lead down to 19th place.

Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski took turns swapping the lead as the race continued into its final stage when the No. 18 of Kyle Busch came alive. Busch roared into second place behind Keselowski and the two battled for the next 21 laps before Busch finally surged ahead into the lead on Lap 364. Keselowski started to fade after the struggle, but Kevin Harvick made his move into second place with 26 laps left in the race. He started to gain ground quickly but there wasn't enough laps left to complete the job. Busch crossed the finish line first with Harvick falling a little short to finish runner-up. Truex made a strong recovery from his pit-stop penalty to come home in third place despite leading a race high 163 laps.

"It was really good all day," said Truex. "Just man, I don’t know what we’ve got to do to win this race. We’ve probably led more than anyone here ever that’s not won it. It’s crazy, but it wasn’t meant to be tonight. Hell of an effort by the guys and good recovery by the guys on pit road."

Truex seems to be truly snake-bit at Richmond. He has led 675 laps over his last five races there, but has exactly zero top-two finishes to show for his efforts.

Chase Elliott and Aric Almirola round out the top-five. Truex earned two bonus points by taking the checkered greens for Stage One and Stage Two.

Click here for full race results.

The Federated Auto Parts 400 was the second of three races which make-up the first elimination round of the NASCAR playoffs. The field of 16 drivers will be cut to 12 after the third race next week at Charlotte. Kyle Busch's win guarantees he will advance to the second round. Overall it was a good day for the playoff field as the top twelve positions were claimed by championship contenders.

Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch have advanced into the second round by virtue of winning the first two races. Martin Truex Jr. has also moved into the next round on the basis of points scored. Despite another heartbreaker at Richmond, Truex currently leads the playoff points standings.

Erik Jones and Denny Hamlin currently sit in 15th & 16th place respectively and will need a victory at Charlotte next week to advance. Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson also sit below the elimination line, but are within striking distance of the cut-off. They will each need a strong showing at Charlotte, but can advance without winning based on points scored.

You can see the updated Driver's Playoff Points Standings here.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs continue in North Carolina next week as the "roval" makes its debut with the Bank of America Roval 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

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_{Photo credits: tequilamike CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons}

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_{Author: @chops316
Editor: @liberty-minded}

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