Hamlin had the race's dominant car, but the No. 11 Toyota wasn't a factor at the end. Hamlin led a
track-record 381 laps before surrendering the top spot to Earnhardt on Lap 383 after developing a slow leak
in his right front tire. Hamlin finished 24th, three laps down. Earnhardt salvaged a 15th-place result and
remained third in the championship standings.
"We took advantage of a misfortune," Bowyer said, "but our Chevrolet was fast all day. . . It was pretty
wild up there -- it was bound to happen. They were racing hard. That's what racing at Richmond is all
about, in my opinion. It just didn't work out (for either)."
But the story was the near-win for Earnhardt, who came tantalizingly close to his first points victory as a
driver for Hendrick Motorsports.
"I've seen the replay, and Tony (Eury) Jr. (Earnhardt's crew chief) said it looked like Kyle got loose
underneath me," Earnhardt said. "We'd been racing each other before, and we had no problem. I've been
priding myself on running good all year, and tonight we got wrecked. It's disappointing."
Busch had his own version of events.
"Junior and I were just racing hard into Turn 3," said Busch, who took over the championship lead by 18
points over Jeff Burton. "It was just a product of good, hard racing. If I had wanted to do it
deliberately, I would have waited till the last lap, when I probably still could have won the race."
Hamlin led 229 of the first 230 laps in a race that produced little carnage until contact between Carl
Edwards' Ford and J.J. Yeley's Toyota on Lap 230 triggered a massive pile-up in Turn 3 that blocked the
track and necessitated a stoppage to remove debris from the track.
Sustaining severe damage in the 14-car melee were the Dodges of Kurt Busch and Patrick Carpentier, the
Fords of Matt Kenseth and David Gilliland and the Chevrolet of two-time defending Cup champion Jimmie
Johnson. Burton also caught a piece of the crash but sustained only minor damage; he remained on the lead
lap and finished 11th.
Notes: Bobby Labonte said before the race that published reports that he had agreed to terms on a new deal
with Petty Enterprises were premature. "There's opportunities in a lot of things right now," Labonte said.
"We're just trying to weigh some options out . . . so stay tuned." . . . Jeff Gordon went a lap down to
Hamlin on Lap 43 of the opening green-flag run, but Gordon got the lap back on a free pass for a restart on
Lap 145 and rallied for a ninth-place finish.
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