Hamlin emerged in front but now had Matt Kenseth on his tail and a blistering restart saw the #17 Roush-Fenway Ford take the lead on lap 216. Two laps later the pace car was out again for the most significant crash of the day as Casey Mears tapped defending Dickies 500 winner Tony Stewart into a spin in heavy traffic. Chase contenders Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch missed the spinning cars by inches but Gilliland, Dale Jarrett and David Ragan all piled in to Mears' car leaving Stewart fairly unscathed.
Kenseth used his restart prowess to keep the lead as the race entered its final 100 laps with Hamlin able to get on terms with the #17 Ford after the race had run green for a few laps. Busch's chances had taken a hit when he stalled on pit road while Jimmie Johnson had now quietly crept into the top three behind Kenseth and Hamlin.
By lap 260 Hamlin and Kenseth were firmly glued together with the #11 JGR Chevrolet darting around trying to work the low groove and the high groove. Time and time again Hamlin drew alongside and even ahead but on every occasion Kenseth immediately fought back until on lap 272 the almost inevitable actually happened when Hamlin lost the front end of his machine coming off turn two, grazed the side of Kenseth's car and then clouted the back straight wall with enough force to bring out the caution flag for the eleventh time. Kenseth, with his left rear tyre in tatters had to slow just as the caution was called handing the lead to a very grateful Johnson, who had been taking chunks of time out of the two duelling leaders in the laps prior to their clash.
Pitting for the penultimate time Johnson's crew reeled off a trouble-free stop to retain the lead with Busch moving back up to second and Kenseth slipping to third. Although Busch took the lead shortly after the restart everyone knew that one more critical pitstop remained and when Greg Biffle smacked the inside back straight wall on lap 298 causing a substantial conflagration, the pit crews got ready to earn their money.
![Jimmie Johnson - Kobalt/Lowe's Chevrolet [pic credit: image.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/300249.jpg)
