There were other constant players at or near the head of the pack notably David Ragan, Travis Kvapil, Paul Menard, David Gilliland, Juan Montoya and Dario Franchitti's replacement David Stremme but eventual winner Busch was not among them for most of the day after a costly mistake on pit road during the first of two rounds of green flag pitstops cost the driver of the #18 Toyota more than a full lap.
Coming down pit road on lap 60 Busch completely missed his pit stall and had to do an extra lap before taking fuel and tyres, the additional time spent at pit road speed meant that Busch lost his place in the draft and quickly fell a lap behind the leaders. However Busch sensibly tucked in directly behind the frontrunners as soon as he went a lap down and was able to stay with the lead draft and maintain his position as the first car one lap down. That meant that when the caution flag waved on lap 116 he was in position to take advantage of the lucky dog pass and regain his place on the lead lap.
The lap 116 caution was only the second of the race at that point with both yellows coming when Roush-Fenway Racing cars suffered front tyre failures and hit the turn four wall. First to go was Matt Kenseth after less than 20 laps while on lap 116 it was Carl Edwards' turn on a day where, Ragan aside, the Roush-Fenway freight train was somewhat derailed.
However if the first 140 laps were largely caution free the final 48 laps redressed the balance significantly with six further caution periods and plenty of bent metal.
Things started to heat up on lap 143 when Stewart, leading but being pushed by Earnhardt Jr, hit the wall in turn one. Initial thoughts that the two drafting buddies had made a mistake were quickly dispelled when Stewart reported a tyre failure and while damage to the #20 Toyota was limited Stewart dropped to 30th.
![Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. [Pic Credit image.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/411976.jpg)
