Over the next five laps roughly half of the lead lap cars, including several Chase contenders also made their stops while Stewart continued to pace the field but on lap 145 the heavens suddenly opened forcing NASCAR to stop the race with Stewart leading from Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Reed Sorenson with Kenseth, Busch, Johnson, Gordon and Denny Hamlin among the list of cars a lap down.
With the rains intensifying it appeared as if NASCAR would have to call the race, itself a decision that would have had major championship implications but instead NASCAR elected to sit things out for as long as possible in the hope that they would able to get at least some of the remaining 120 laps in the books.
More than two hours after throwing the red flag and with evening fast approaching NASCAR rewarded the fans patience by restarting the race albeit at a distance of 225 rather than 267 laps. Stewart and the rest of the leaders therefore would have to pit before the restart thus allowing Kenseth, Busch, Gordon et al back onto the lead lap, albeit at the tail end of the lead lap.
That fact became academic less than half a lap before the restart as the lapped car of Ken Schrader spun coming through turn two in front of the field and when the smoke had cleared nearly half a dozen cars, including Kenseth and Truex Jr, were sitting in a smoky heap with several others, including the leader Stewart, sporting some significant damage.
Two drivers who missed the wreck by inches, Harvick and Biffle, now assumed the top two positions with Stewart attempting to stay on track and hope the significant tyre rub would go away. Sadly for the driver of the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet the problem only went away when the left front exploded half way down the back straight on lap 177, three laps after Biffle had wrested the lead away from Harvick with a fine outside move in turn four.
![Greg Biffle - 3M/Ameriquest Ford [pic credit: Ford media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/297694.jpg)
