In the best Car of Tomorrow restrictor plate race yet Kyle Busch emerged from a lap down to win Sunday's Aaron's 499 at the Talladega Superspeedway.
Following on from last October's boring UAW-Ford 500 at the monstrous 2.66-mile track and then this February's rather insipid
Daytona 500 the new chassis platform got its first major workout on an overcast day in Alabama on Sunday.
Drivers made full use of the extra rigidity of the new generation of cars with some fearsome bump drafting and the usually rabid Talladega grandstands were treated to some shining examples of how the new cars are more driveable than their forbearers with several significant, if temporary, two and three car breakaways at the head of the field.
But as usual when crunch time came no less than 30 cars went into the final lap almost as one and after an relatively clean afternoon's racing with numerous near misses and close calls, all hell broke loose within two miles of the chequered flag.
For most of the day the race bore resemblance to the predicted Hendrick versus Gibbs battle with the Toyota's of Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart dicing for supremacy with the Hendrick Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Stewart, with help from Hamlin, took the lead from polesitter Joe Nemechek on the opening lap and remained in front for the majority of the first 40 laps. However this would be the sole period of relative calm during the race and by the time the white flag fell to signal the start of the 188th and final lap both Stewart, Hamlin and Earnhardt Jr would find themselves out of the fight for victory.
In a race that saw 52 official lead changes among 19 different drivers the two Gibbs drivers and Earnhardt Jr led for a combined 144 laps with Hamlin apparently able to bump draft anybody else to the front using the outside groove and Earnhardt Jr already showing some mastery of the returning slingshot manoeuvre.
![Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. [Pic Credit image.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/411976.jpg)
