Busch was untouchable down the stretch in the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. He charged by Jeff Gordon to take the lead with 49 laps to go and crossed the finish line a comfortable 2.751 seconds ahead of second-place Tony Stewart.

Cars equipped with WIX Filters have now won four of the 10 Sprint Cup Series races this season including the last two consecutive.

“This is a great effort by the whole team,” Busch said. “I really want to thank Steve Addington [crew chief]. He made a great race call there to come and get four tires when we did and stay out the rest of the way. Fortunately the caution never came back out and we were able to win this thing and had the right track position at the right time.”

Busch made his final charge to the front moments after a restart on lap 349. He charged by Carl Edwards and into second-place on lap 351 and wrestled the lead away from Jeff Gordon one lap later.

“Tonight I had two good restarts,” Busch said. “I jumped to the outside early in the race and got by two guys before we even got to Turn 1. Then Jeff Gordon slowed us down, I jumped to Carl’s outside and got him on that restart. It’s just trying to work towards being ready for it. You got to plan ahead. You got to watch what the guys do on restarts. You got to know who is restarting and learn what they do over time.”

The victory was the first for Busch in nine races at Richmond and his 15th in 160 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. And even sweeter for Busch was the fact he won on his 24th birthday.

“This is an awesome win for us,” Busch said. “It’s really exciting to come out here tonight and no only win on my birthday but to have the team guys enjoy it as much as I do. We struggled for four weeks. It’s been a struggle for us and we didn’t finish the way we wanted to but we made it happen here tonight and I’m real proud of these guys. It was a whole team effort.”

Busch averaged 90.627 mph in a race that took 3 hours, 18 minutes and 37 seconds to complete. There were 21 lead changes among eight drivers and 15 cautions slowed the race for 79 laps.

Since 1939, WIX® Filters has been an innovator in filtration products. WIX designs, manufactures and distributes products for automotive, diesel, agricultural, industrial and specialty filter markets. Its product line includes oil, air, cabin interior, fuel, coolant, transmission and hydraulic filters for automobiles, trucks and off-road equipment. WIX, a member of the Affinia family of brands, is the number one filter in NASCAR and an exclusive NASCAR Performance Product. Its NASCAR relationship also includes the WIX Filters Lap Leader Award, which recognizes the drivers leading the most laps in each race. For more information, visit www.wixfilters.com.

Affinia Group Inc. is a global leader in the on and off-highway replacement products and service industry. In North America the Affinia family of brands includes WIX® Filters, Raybestos®, AIMCO® and BrakePro® brake products, and McQuay-Norris® and Raybestos™ Chassis parts. South American and European brands include Nakata®, Filtron®, Urba® and Quinton Hazell®. For more information, visit www.affiniagroup.com.

*Affinia Group Inc.’s affiliated companies include Brake Parts Inc. WIX Filtration Corp LLC, Affinia Products Corp LLC and other high quality manufacturers of the Affinia family of brands.