Last week I wrote my Richmond preview a day early, mainly because I had full days on Thursday and Friday. Well, the day after writing my Richmond preview, I read something which made me almost jump out of my skin. Tony Stewart would race at Richmond. Being a Tony fan, this was thrilling. I spent the rest of the day telling everyone I could, ‘”He’s coming back! Smoke’s rising!'”

Stewart qualified 18th, and Kevin Harvick won the pole due to his practice time (Rain canceled qualifying). Harvick led the first twenty laps, but then was passed by 3 time Richmond winner Jimmie Johnson. Johnson would lead briefly, but was soon tracked down by Carl Edwards, who was looking for his second straight win. Edwards would lead until the first caution, which came on lap 157 for debris.

On the ensuing pit stops, Denny Hamlin, who was running in the top-three with teammates Edwards and Kyle Busch, was penalized because his team had an uncontrolled tire on the pit stop.

Kyle beat Edwards off pit road, and on the following restart he pulled away as Edwards spun his tires. Only to be tracked down and passed by Carl five laps later. These two were the class of the field for most of the race.

30 laps after all this, another caution was thrown for debris, and this time Edwards won the race off pit road. On the ensuing restart, drivers went crazy, going three and even four wide into turn one.

Not long after the restart, Tony Stewart blew a tire, and the caution flew. Apparently on the previous Joey Logano had recklessly slammed into Stewart, and had caused a tire rub on Tony’s left rear tire. (We all know that Joey drives recklessly) Stewart would make it to pit road, and he didn’t lose a lap in the process, though he did fall to 27th.

The racing was good for the next 150 laps, and defending race winner Kurt Busch took the lead, and it seemed he might be able to hold it until the finish. That is, until Brian Scott spun on lap 359, bringing out the race’s 8th caution. On the following pit stops, Kurt’s crew performed terribly, and dropped him from 1st to 5th. Kurt was irate over the radio. Can’t say I blame him.

Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards were now the leaders, and Kyle briefly pulled away. However, with about twenty laps to go, Edwards began to reel his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate in, gradually closing the gap between them.

For the final fifteen laps, the two waged an epic battle for the lead. When Carl went high, Busch went low. But Edwards couldn’t make the pass on the outside, and Kyle easily blocked him on the inside. So when the white flag waved, Kyle still had the lead, and Edwards was three car lengths behind him. Then, going into turn 1, Edwards drove into the corner faster than seemed possible, and he made it stick. He was now on Busch’s bumper. As they dove into the final corner, Edwards drove straight into Kyle’s bumper, and sent him up the track. Carl passed him and took the checkered flag.

This was Edwards’ second win in a row, and he was visibly thrilled. Kyle was obviously disappointed, but he did his best not to show it. As for Stewart, he rallied from his early misfortunes, and he finished 19th, a solid showing after missing the first 8 races of the season and blowing a tire.