Bizarre might be a good description of the Dan Lowry 400 Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway.
This one had a little bit of everything.
Denny Hamlin led a race-record number of laps, 381 to be exact.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch provided a few laps of great racing for the lead, a battle that ended with Earnhardt spinning out on Lap 398.
And that led to Clint Bowyer getting by both Earnhardt and Busch, en route to his second career win in NASCAR Sprint Cup competition.
Hamlin owned the race until he had a tire go flat with the end in sight, on Lap 383. Hamlin stopped his car on the track and NASCAR invoked a two-lap penalty for intentionally causing a caution.
After the restart, Earnhardt and Busch battled several laps for the lead with Earnhardt taking over, much to the delight of the partisan crowd. Their cheers turned to boos a few laps later when the two drivers scraped together and Earnhardt spun, hitting the outside wall.
That set the stage for a green, white, checker finish – with Bowyer holding off Busch for the two laps as the sellout crowd of more than 110,000 fans roared their approval. Busch’s runner-up result was good enough for him to overtake Jeff Burton for the series points lead.
While Bowyer was reaping the rewards of his win, Michael Waltrip was trying to explain to NASCAR officials why he continued to push Casey Mears' car after an accident between the two. Mears pinched Waltrip into the outside wall, causing both cars to make contact. Waltrip continued the skirmish after the cars slowed down.
It was another good performance for veteran Mark Martin, who finished third. Rounding out the top 10 were Tony Stewart, Martin Truex, Jr., Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne. Earnhardt wound up 15th. Hamlin was 24th.
Prior to the tire problem, Hamlin had taken up where he had left off in winning Friday night's NASCAR Nationwide Series race at RIR, leading 229 of the first 230 laps.
The Chesterfield, Va. native was thrilled following his Friday win, the first of his career at his “home track,” and carried his exuberance into the NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
On Lap 230, contact between Carl Edwards' Ford and J.J. Yeley's Toyota led to a 14-car incident that included the Chevrolet of points leader Burton. Burton, however, escaped with minimal damage and went on to an 11th-place finish – but he dropped to second in the point standings
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