Gordon's reprieve came when Juan Montoya spun to bring out caution number three, handing the driver of the #24 Hendrick Chevrolet the ‘Lucky Dog' free pass but when racing resumed up at the front the story was much the same with Hamlin comfortably leading Martin, Busch, practice leader Dale Earnhardt Jr, Martin Truex Jr, Clint Bowyer, Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and the rest.
The fourth caution of the race shortly after half distance for AJ Allmendinger's spin brought the leaders to pit road for fuel and tyres with Busch's #18 Joe Gibbs crew managing to get their man out ahead of Martin's #8 DEI Chevrolet and for a brief while it looked as though Busch might have something for his teammate at the head of the pack. Hamlin was able to re-assert himself at the front but just 20 laps later the caution flags were out again for Paul Menard's collision with Brian Vickers and Hamlin was pegged back again.
Indeed after a relatively calm start to the night the standard short track tempers began to fray in the second half with six further cautions bring the total number of pace car interventions to eleven before the chequered flag flew.
The sixth caution of the night on lap 231 was the most serious and resulted in the red flags being displayed after no less than twelve cars were damaged in a turn three crash triggered when Dave Blaney tapped JJ Yeley into the outside wall coming off turn two. As the field tried to slow to avoid Yeley's damaged vehicle Patrick Carpentier was punted across the track from behind, smashing the inside wall and ricocheting back up the track in front of at least half the field. The results weren't pretty as car after car piled into Carpentier, blocking the track completely. When the dust settled David Gilliland, Montoya, Michael McDowell, Johnny Sauter, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Regan Smith, the luckless Matt Kenseth and series points leader Jeff Burton had all sustained damage with several others, notably the recovering Gordon, escaping by the skin of their teeth.
![Clint Bowyer - Jack Daniels Chevrolet [pic credit: GM media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/289103.jpg)
