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Denny Hamlin had the race won. He had led 381 of 382 laps and was pulling away from a battle for second between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch. He found himself just 17 laps from a victory at his hometown track, but the next lap he found himself in third and at the mercy of his right front tire which had gone soft and was likely to blow. It finally did on lap 391 as Hamlin settled for, to understate it, disappointing finish to a race that was his to lose.

However, that second place battle between Earnhardt Jr. and Busch now became a battle for the win with six laps to go. Just a few laps after the restart, Busch got loose while trying to pass Earnhardt and the duo made contact in turn 3, sending Earnhardt, who hasn't won a points paying Cup race since this race in 2006, into the wall. Emerging from the smoke was Clint Bowyer, who was running third and was able to steer under Busch and the wrecking Earnhardt. After the race Busch would be confronted by members of Earnhardt Jr.'s crew before addressing the media.

"Just a bummer deal," Busch shrugged after climbing from his car. "We were both racing hard there. That was just a product of good hard racing. I apologize that it happened. I hate that it did. We just didn’t give each other enough room in turn 3."

""I wouldn't say that was intentional. I ran hard and got wrecked. Whether it was fair or not, he's going to need security," a disgruntled Earnhardt lamented after settling for a 15th place finish. "I thought I was going to end the winless streak tonight and celebrate and be happy. We'll have to keep running good like we are and try somewhere else."

Bowyer held off Busch on the final restart, as Busch was battling with Mark Martin for second, to earn his second career victory in Cup series competition. After crossing the line Bowyer sarcastically asked his crew chief Gil Martin, "We knew we had that all day, didn't we?''

"It's awesome. I love this place,'' he said in Victory Lane. "I messed things up in qualifying for the guys, we just dug deep and worked hard and things worked out... took advantage of a misfortune right there up front. This is awesome. It's what it's all about.''

The race changed quickly on lap 229 when J.J Yeley got into the outside wall, sparking a Talladega-esque incident that involved at least nine cars, taking Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth all out of contention. The wreck stopped the race over 20 minutes, giving a preview to the eventual chaos that would unfold.

"Things happen so fast, you don't know where to go," said Busch, who finished 42nd in the 43-car field after the incident. "I had my front brakes all locked up."

Another odd incident that occurred was with 45 laps to go when Casey Mears and Michael Walrtip made contact coming off turn 4, sending Mears into the wall. As Mears' heavily damaged car slowly made it's way to turn 1, Walrtip got back on the gas and got into the rear end of Mears' car, pushing him all the way to the end of the straightaway. Waltrip was parked for the remainder of the race, while he and Mears finished 37th and 36th, respectively.

Hamlin had been the fastest car all weekend long, with the top lap in the only practice session of the impound weekend, winning the pole for the Cup race later that night, and then going on to win the Nationwide Series race for his first Nascar win at Richmond. However, Hamlin will leave Richmond bitterly disappointed, as will the still winless Earnhardt, after coming so close to finding victory lane.

After the chaos at Talladega the Sprint Cup Series heads to Richmond, Virginia, where 400 laps and 300 miles of bumping and ####ing are sure to please in primetime.

1. Jeff Burton

Burton didn't perform particularly well at Talladega, finishing 12th after starting in the back of the pack. Burton has the potential to perform at Richmond, where he won in 1998. However, in this race last year, he left the race early with engine troubles and finished 43rd.


2. Kyle Busch

Is there any doubt that he will be one of the guys to beat in the Chase? Just when you thought you found a track that Busch couldn't compete at, the guy goes out and wins there. Talk about silencing critics... As far as Richmond goes, he has never failed to complete a lap and has 5 top-5's in 6 starts.


3. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

He led 46 laps before getting caught up in a large wreck and falling back. However, Jr. recovered to finish 10th, keeping him 3rd in points. However, this weekend is a dreaded anniversary for Jr; 2 whole years since he won a points paying race. He would like nothing more than to end that slump this weekend at Richmond, where he's claimed 3 victories.


4. Carl Edwards

It seems the only way that Carl will ever be doing back flips at Talladega is if he gets turned around and takes a Sadler-esque ride. Otherwise, Carl will dread going to the 2.66 miler. Unfortunately, things don't fare much better for Cousin Carl at Richmond either, where he has an average finish outside the top-20.


5. Denny Hamlin

Hamlin was a show all in himself at Talladega, pushing cars to the lead every other lap, finishing the day finishing 3rd for his 5th consecutive finish of 6th or better. Now Hamlin seeks his first victory at Richmond, another home track for the Virginia native. Hamlin would like nothing better than to give the fans the same show he did back at Martinsville earlier this year.


6. Greg Biffle

Biffle has never performed well at 'Dega, and was probably just relieved to have earned a sub-par 18th place finish, avoiding too much damage in the points race. Biffle has 5 consecutive top-10's until the COT was introduced, when he finished 19th and 39th. However Roush racing has upped it's COT program, and with that Biffle should return to being at contender at RIR.


7. Jimmie Johnson

If you had to decide between putting Jimmie Johnson or Morgan Shepherd for a fantasy roster for Richmond at this point last year, you may have actually picked the latter. Before his sweep of the races last year, Johnson only had one top-10 in 10 starts. However Johnson was able to claim victory in both races at the Virginia track last year with the COT, which implies he will also contend for the win again this weekend.


8. Kevin Harvick

Harvick suffered from a last lap crash that relegated him to a 24th place finish. Richmond is the place for Happy Harvick to turn it around, however, as he has 8 top-10's in 12 starts, including a win here in 2006.


9. Tony Stewart

Stewart has enjoyed so much success at Talladega, leading several laps and coming oh so close to victory. Victory eluded him again, however, when he was caught up in the big one with 15 laps to go. Stewart has three victories at Richmond, however, and has an average finish of 11.3, including a runner-up finish here last fall.


10. Clint Bowyer

Six consecutive top-10's have allowed Bowyer to climb to 7th in points, and proved that he can perform at any track you throw at the 29 year old Bowyer, with those top-10's coming at the short tracks of Bristol and Martinsville, the intermediate track in Texas, the one-miler Phoenix, and finally the unpredictable Talladega Superspeedway. At Richmond he is almost a sure-bet to earn his 7th-consecutive top-10, where he has an average finish of 10.8.




Other Notables:

11. Jeff Gordon- He fell from 2nd to 19th in the final two laps and was involved in the final lap crash. However, Gordon should perform well at Richmond, where he finished 4th in both races last year, leading the most laps in each.

12. David Gilliland- I don't know what it is, but Gilliland has all of a sudden put together 4 top-15's in 5 races, and sits 18th in points! And he's already earned a top-10 at Richmond before.

13. Brian Vickers- He finished 5th at 'Dega, his first top-5 of the season. Vickers now sits 15th in points, could he be a surprise after 26 races?

14. Juan Pablo Montoya- Love 'em or hate 'em Montoya performed at 'Dega, riding Busch's rear bumper to a 2nd place finish. Montoya now claims the final spot of the Chase field, seemingly coming out of nowhere (his 2nd place finish at Talladega is his only top-10 of the year so far).

15. Mark Martin- The 49 year old Martin again takes the wheel of the Army car, and is almost certain to contend after his strong run at Phoenix.