Denny Hamlin had the fastest car. He qualified on the pole. He led the race after each of nine caution flags. He set a new record for most laps led at Richmond International. He was able to hold off challenges from Mark Martin, Kyle Busch, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., even pulling out a two second lead on the field.
But, as you know, the most important lap to lead is the last one, so it had to be a huge heart breaker for Denny and the Joe Gibbs FedEx Toyota crew when a tire going down on the #11 Toyota let Earnhardt and Busch finally get by on lap 382. Denny nursed it for another 10 circuits, sliding back through the field, before the right side rubber disintegrated bringing out yellow flag number 10.
(Click through the jump to read on.)
On the restart Dale Earnhardt Jr. led Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin back up to speed under green and looked to be in perfect position to end his long winless streak. Kyle and Dale were giving no quarter in their battle for the lead. When Kyle got into Earnhardt’s #88 Chevy, it put Earnhardt into the wall. Clint Bowyer cleared the latest carnage, taking the lead for the first time, as the 11th caution flag came out. It took ten laps to sweep up the track before Clint Bowyer now brought the field to the line for a green-white-checkered flag finish. Clint was able to keep his #07 Chevrolet out front to take the win while Kyle Busch and Mark Martin fought for second. Kyle came second, Mark third, followed by Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. recovered to 15th, Denny Hamlin had to settle for 24th.
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Hooray. another green-white-checker finish. NASCAR might as well use one of those Lotto ping - pong ball machines to assign a finishing order and save wear and tear on the cars - that way, they’ll look really nice for those supermarket and auto-parts store appearences.
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