Although the caution was not what Kenseth and his #17 Roush-Fenway team had wanted it was a blessing for the #99 part of the stable as it allowed them to go to work on a broken throttle linkage that had left Edwards having to pick the pedal off the floor with his foot whilst trying to hold on to second place on the track. The crew was able to fix the problem, but Edwards would take the subsequent restart in 23rd position.
Once the race resumed Kenseth pulled away again from the rest of the pack, now being headed by Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch. By lap 165 the gap between first and second was nearly four seconds and Kenseth appeared to be the class of the field.
However cracks in the armoury began to show just a few laps later just as Kevin Harvick suffered the first of two tyre related problems, the reigning
Daytona 500 champion having to pit under green to replace a loose wheel, dropping two laps behind the leaders to 37th. While Harvick was ruing his misfortune Kenseth's alternator began to fade, forcing the leader to change to his back-up battery.
If Kenseth was worried his driving certainly didn't show it as he put his fellow Chase drivers Tony Stewart and Jeff Burton a lap down before the 200-lap mark and maintained a steady lead over second place driver Kurt Busch.
Kenseth's lead was once again thrown out of the window by the safety car on lap 203 when Hamlin rather rudely punted Kyle Petty into the start/finish straight wall not only damaging his own car but also the car of New Hampshire winner Clint Bowyer, who was directly behind Hamlin as they raced for sixth and seventh. Bowyer was able to continue after cosmetic repairs although Hamlin was forced to the garage for repairs that would cost him nearly 100 laps.
Joining Hamlin, Bowyer, Edwards, Stewart, Burton and Harvick on the trouble train was none other than Johnson, who suffered a puncture shortly before the caution and dropped two laps to the leaders and fell to 28th.
