The entire grandstand held its breath when the green flag waved but everybody came up to speed without incident as Gordon pulled away slightly. With everyone expecting Gordon's car to splutter again the final climactic lap drew no more drama with Gordon just holding off Bowyer and Busch just holding off Jeff Burton for third. Edwards rounded out the top five in the leading Ford while Dave Blaney earned his second straight top ten finish with sixth place in the #22 Bill Davis Racing Toyota.
Stewart recovered from a pair of pair toad incidents to salvage seventh place for Joe Gibbs Racing while Kasey Kahne, one of the drivers Stewart hit during the lap 189 pit road melee, also recovered to eighth. David Stremme and Michael Waltrip rounded out the top ten with the returning Ricky Rudd claiming a very welcome eleventh place.
Johnson's late stop relegated him to 14th while AJ Allmendinger claimed his career best finish with a 15th place run in the only
Red Bull Toyota to qualify. Martin Truex Jr took 17th place with Dale Earnhardt Jr 19th after he slapped the wall. Denny Hamlin finished the race stuck in fourth gear in 20th place with Coca Cola 600 winner Casey Mears one lap down in 21st after a collision with Bill Elliott.
Kurt Busch finished two laps down in 26th after he hit Mark Martin on pit road, slapped the turn four wall and then lapsed onto seven cylinders while his Penske teammate Newman was a disconsolate 28th after his late crash. Harvick took 33rd place, three laps adrift with Kenseth the first of the ‘walking wounded' some 50 laps down to Gordon in 34th place.
Gordon's victory increases his points lead over Johnson to nearly 70 points with Bowyer third nearly 80 points back. Stewart sits fourth overall but is 198 points back while Edwards remains fifth but is 240 markers down. Kyle Busch runs sixth overall but is 280 points back while his elder brother Kurt, Harvick, Hamlin, Burton, Truex Jr and Kenseth are all more than 300 points behind and all but out of the chase for the title.
