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.
Green flag racing resumed temporarily on lap 210 but less than 20 laps later the pace car was back out for Jamie McMurray's spin. Once that incident had been cleared however, an extended period of green flag racing really shaped the race as Kenseth and his recovering teammate Edwards proceeded to blow the rest of the field apart.
After pulling away from the rest of the pack Edwards caught and passed his teammate on lap 266 with Mark Martin in the #01 Ginn/DEI Chevrolet the only other driver able to keep pace. On lap 288 Edwards ceded his lead and made his only green flag pitstop of the day, handing the race lead to Martin in the process.
Always an expert on saving fuel Martin was able to hold the lead until lap 310 before making his stop and giving Biffle and then Reed Sorenson a turn in top spot before their respective stops. It wasn't until lap 320 that the order finally shuffled out with Kenseth back in a narrow lead over Edwards with Martin now eight seconds back in third and Ryan Newman nearly 15 seconds behind in fourth. Everyone else was half a lap behind or more with Jeff Gordon joining the lengthening list of cars more than a lap off the pace.
