Crown Royal presents the Dan Lowry 400 - May, 3, 2008

"Yeah, we knew we had it all day, didn't we?"

That was Clint Bowyer's sarcastic, yet jubilant, quote to his pit crew over the in-car radio after he took the checkered flag in Saturday night's Crown Royal 400 from Richmond International Raceway in a race highlighted by short-track fireworks in the event's last 20 laps.

Denny Hamlin, a native of nearby Chesterfield, Va., dominated the evening's festivities, leading 381 of 400 laps and walking away from the field at times. He held a sizeable lead over Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch with 20 laps to go when he felt his right front tire going down. In a stunning turn of events, Hamlin went from first to 15th before the tire finally let go and he crashed into the Turn 4 wall, bringing out the race's penultimate caution period.

With Hamlin out of the way, a host of drivers led by Earnhardt and Busch lined up to slug it out for the win on Richmond's three-quarter-mile asphalt tri-oval. The restart with five laps to go had Clint Bowyer, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick lined up just behind the front two.

Earnhardt and Busch put on quite a show from that point, battling for the point and running side-by-side until, with two-and-a-half laps remaining, Busch got slightly loose under Earnahrdt in Turn 3 and turned the No. 88 Chevy sideways and into the fence. Snap-on's Clint Bowyer dove under the two and took the caution flag as the race leader. A green-white-checker "overtime" period would decide the winner.

With Earnhardt -- like Hamlin just three laps earlier -- now out of the way, Bowyer would have to hold off a hard-charging and over-aggressive Busch if he intended to record his second Sprint Cup victory.

With Mark Martin's help, he did just that.

Martin pulled alongside the No. 18 of Busch on the restart and gave the 23-year-old all he could handle over the final two laps, enabling Bowyer to sprint away from the field for the win, uncontested.

"They were just racing so hard there and you knew it was going to happen," an elated Bowyer said of the Earnhardt-Busch clash. "I just took advantage of a misfortune right there. But I'm real happy for all these guys and for BB&T. She was fast all night long. I messed up in qualifying for these guys in starting in the back, but was able to bounce back so that was really good."

Busch held off Martin to finish second. They were followed by Stewart in fourth, Truex fifth and Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne in sixth through 10th.

Earnhardt managed a 15th-place finish after his run-in with the wall, while Hamlin settled for a 24th-place showing.

"You know, we were just one little whisker off of being able to get it done tonight," third-place Martin said. "It was very close. But the car, we got off a little bit the middle of the race and lost some track position and then got the car back something better toward the end; not quite a hundred percent, but we got it better. It was tough out there."

"I don't think we were a fifth-place car by any means at the end, but at times throughout the race we were," Snap-on's Truex said of his evening. "So, I'm proud of the guys. They did a good job for me all night. The motor ran really good tonight. We just had to hang around. Finally at the end of one of these deals usually we're one of the ones getting wrecked or blowing up or having all the unfortunate luck."

Eighth-place finisher Kevin Harvick was frustrated despite his top-10 finish that kept him in the top five in the NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings:

"I think everyone was pretty loose at the start of the race," he explained. "Todd (Berrier, crew chief) and the guys kept working on our Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet to get it better. There was a point there about mid-race when we were pretty good and made some good moves to the top-three, but then the car just started going away again and we couldn't seem to get it back. It was a decent points night for us, but we want to be running up front and contending for wins. I know everyone at RCR will continue to work hard on our program to get us where we need to be."

Snap-on's Sam Hornish Jr. finished 23rd in the event, while Paul Menard placed 31st.

Kurt Busch finished 42nd after a hard hit in the night's biggest wreck which started when Dave Blaney, J.J. Yeley and Carl Edwards got tangled up on lap 231. Yeley ended up in the wall while a gaggle of cars behind him, including Busch, defending race-winner Jimmie Johnson, Johnny Sauter, Juan Pablo Montoya, David Gilliland, Regan Smith and Michael McDowell, all were collected in the ensuing melee. Jeff Burton narrowly avoided the wreck and slid through en route to an 11th-place finish.

Kevin Harvick:
May, 2, 2008 | Richmond, Va. -- It was an impressive night for Kevin Harvick and the No. 33 team at Richmond International Raceway. After taking the lead of the Lipton Tea 250 just past the halfway mark, Harvick went on to lead 98 laps on his way to a second-place finish. Harvick elected not to pit while leading during a lap-237 caution when he saw second-place Carl Edwards and third-place Mike Bliss stay out behind him. "I've been caught on both sides of that, but it only cost us one spot," Harvick said. "I was pitting, until I saw the 60 (Edwards) and the 1 (Bliss) behind him stay up. I figured more cars would stay out." Eventual race-winner Denny Hamlin pitted, giving him the fresh tires he needed to run down Harvick late. "I'm just really proud of the pit crew guys. All those guys have been working hard, and what a turnaround from the first week on pit road," Harvick said."We did everything right, just came up a little bit short. We keep running like that, good things will keep coming our way." Harvick is looking for his first win in the Nationwide Series in his self-owned Chevys, although Tony Stewart and Bobby Labonte have both taken KHI machines to Victory Lane.

Steve Wallace:
May, 2, 2008 | Richmond, Va. -- Steve Wallace continues to make strides in his second full season of Nationwide Series competition. The second-generation racer recorded his best career finish on Friday night, a fifth-place run in the Lipton Tea 250 at Richmond International Raceway. Wallace also exchanged paint on the racetrack with Kyle Busch in the event's waning laps and traded barbs with him afterwards, as well. "He's a boy trying to play it in a man's sport," Busch said of the incident, which involved the two banging on the cool-down lap and Wallace grabbing Busch by the facemask on pit road. "If he's going to say stuff like that, he can come and say it to my face," retorted Wallace.

Clint Bowyer:
May, 2, 2008 | Richmond, Va. -- Clint Bowyer had a stellar weekend at Richmond International Raceway. The Emporia, Kan.-native, who leads the NASCAR Nationwide Series point standings, qualified his Richard Childress-owned BB&T Chevy fifth on the grid. Although he failed to lead a lap on the evening, he kept the car in the top 10 all night and drove it to a solid ninth-place finish. Bowyer has eight top 10s in 11 Nationwide races thus far in 2008. Bowyer bettered his Friday night results on Saturday, when he snuck past a hard-dueling Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. with two laps to go to win the Sprint Cup Series' Crown Royal 400. It was Bowyer's second career Cup win and moves him up to fourth in the Sprint Cup point standings.

Scott Wimmer:
May, 2, 2008 | Richmond, Va. -- Scott Wimmer put up another solid top-10 finish in the RCR No. 29 Chevy in the Lipton Tea 250 at Richmond International Raceway. Wimmer started 10th on the grid and finished there, his fourth consecutive top-10 run of the 2008 campaign.

Sam Hornish Jr.:
May, 2, 2008 | Richmond, Va. -- Sam Hornish Jr., a two-time IndyCar winner at Richmond International Raceway, earned his first top-15 run at the three-quarter-mile short track in a stock car in Friday's Lipton Tea 250. After qualifying 28th, Hornish and crew had a hard-fought battle to race to, and remain at, the front of the field. Hornish fell a lap down early and crew chief Matt Gimbel based pit strategy around getting the No. 12 Dodge back on the lead lap for much of the race. The strategy finally paid off, when on lap 234, Hornish was awarded the "Lucky Dog" pass. Hornish was in 17th on that restart and worked his way up to 15th by the time the checkered flag fell, 10 laps later. "We put ourselves in the right place at the right time," said Hornish. "We were one lap down for most of the race and seemed stuck just outside the top-20. Matt (Gimbel) made the right call and with just 10 laps to go we were able to race our way up to 15th place. We are going to run the next few Nationwide races and hope to build upon our recent success in the Penske Truck Rental Dodge."

Bobby Hamilton Jr.:
May, 2, 2008 | Richmond, Va. -- Bobby Hamilton Jr. and his Team Rensi Ford continue to go toe-to-toe with the big boys of the sport and put up a competitive showing. Hamilton notched his third-straight lead-lap finish in the Lipton Tea 250 from Richmond International Raceway on Friday night. Hamilton qualified 20th in the event in his No. 25 Ford and finished 17th. Despite being a single-car operation with no Sprint Cup ties, Hamilton and crew have completed 99.8 percent of all laps run in 2008 and sit 11th in Nationwide Series points.

Kelly Bires:
May, 2, 2008 | Richmond, Va. -- Kelly Bires had been one of the pleasant surprises on the Nationwide Series this season. Driving his first full schedule on tour, Bires has made the No. 47 JTG Racing Ford into a competitive ride. Unfortunately, Friday night's Richmond race wasn't one of the team's shining moments, although they did manage a 20th-place finish. "It was good at the start of the race," Bires said of his evening. "We drove forward a good amount and had a real good pit stop and were sitting there in the top 15. We were looking good and the car was a little tight but we made some adjustments and helped it. "When we went back racing, the car just got tight," he added. "I think we've got an issue with our brakes that is really hurting the car. The guys really worked hard on it because we struggled a little bit when we first got here and then got it driving good. We had a couple of issues and a couple of vibrations -- just a lot of stuff going on with the car that affected the end result. "We'll just have to go home and see what's wrong with it and get it fixed. Still, we should have finished better than we did, we just missed the handling there at the end. The cautions killed us and we just got real tight on that long run and got us a lap down. The car is in one piece, though, so we'll go back and work on it and make it better." Bires is 12th in NASCAR Nationwide Series points.

Marcos Ambrose:
May, 2, 2008 | Richmond, Va. -- Bires' JTG Racing teammate, Marcos Ambrose, also had a rough go of it Friday night. The Australia-native battled handling issues all night and settled for a 25th-place showing. "It was just a tough night," the amiable Ambrose explained. "We were a little loose in when we came off the truck and it just sort of hurt us here for the race. I thought we were gonna be better than that, so I'm a little disappointed."