RICHMOND, Va. — Kurt Busch has spent time this year in a Delaware courtroom, then on NASCAR’s sidelines as he served a three-race suspension for an alleged domestic assault on a former girlfriend.

Now he has made a trip to Victory Lane, where Busch hoped his victory Sunday at Richmond International Raceway will help him close one of the messiest chapters of his volatile career.

“Standing on the truth the whole time, that gave me the feeling of when I do get back to the car, it’s going to be easy to focus, and I think I’ve shown that,” said Busch, who still has a no-contact order against him that was issued in February by a Delaware Family Court judge. The judge ruled that Busch likely assaulted ex-girlfriend Patricia Driscoll in September.

Busch, the 2004 series champion, dominated the rain-delayed Sprint Cup race that was originally scheduled for Saturday night.

The Stewart-Haas Racing driver led a career-best 291 of the 400 laps on the 0.75-mile oval, outrunning teammate Kevin Harvick over the final dozen laps to end a 35-race winless streak.

Earlier in his return, he said he was trying too hard.

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“I think I might have been driving too hard, too much of a chip on my shoulder, so to speak,” he said, adding that he realized last weekend that there is danger in driving along the line that separates effectively aggressive and overly aggressive.

One week later, he’s already secured a spot in NASCAR’s 10-race playoff.

“We’re winners in April. It feels good,” he said. “Plenty of time to do fun things to build the team up, get stronger, learn from all these races coming up and continue to go forward.”

“Like (team owner) Gene Haas said: One win is great. I want four or five more.”

Harvick, meanwhile, finished in the top two for the seventh time in nine races, but said he had to rally after his car struggled on one set of tires and drifted back into the pack.

There were only two green-flag lead changes, when Busch passed Joey Logano after 94 laps, and when Jamie McMurray passed Busch after 262 laps.

Busch regained the lead under caution and never relinquished it, beating Harvick to the finish by 0.754 seconds. The victory was the 26th of Busch’s career and second at Richmond.

Jimmie Johnson rallied from a No. 36 starting spot to grab third. McMurray was fourth and pole-sitter Logano, who led the first 94 laps, was fifth.


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