Earnhardt Jr brought the field to the green again with five laps to go and Busch directly on his rear bumper. For two laps they battled side by side with Earnhardt Jr on the high side and the crowd going crazy, hoping Earnhardt Jr's two-year winless streak was about to come to an end. However going into turn three on lap 398 Busch drifted up the track and into the #88 Chevrolet, which promptly spun backwards into the outside wall. In the confusion Clint Bowyer, who had been observing the battle from a safe distance in third, slipped underneath Busch to take the lead.
To say the 106,000 fans that lined the circuit were unhappy with the outcome of the Earnhardt Jr/ Busch scrap would be an understatement and as Bowyer led Busch to the green-white-chequered flag restart the boos and jeers from the grandstands were very audible even over the sound of the engines.
Busch spun his tyres on the final restart, which allowed Bowyer to escape and Martin to attack him for second. Bowyer reeled off the final two laps unchallenged to take a surprise second career Cup Series win, a win he was clearly somewhat stunned to have been gifted. Busch and Martin raced side by side to the line with Busch just edging Martin for second and then apologising to Earnhardt Jr for wrecking him. However it may be some time before the driver of the #18 Toyota receives so much as a single cheer from any Earnhardt Jr fan at any track in the country and the driver nicknamed ‘wild thing' certainly left Richmond under a major cloud.
Third place for Martin was reward for a highly competitive evening while Tony Stewart came through to take fourth place after once again spending much of the night as the poorest relation in the Joe Gibbs camp. Martin Truex Jr, like his DEI teammate, ran consistently in the top half dozen all evening and came away from Richmond with a fifth place result with Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne rounding out the top ten.
![Clint Bowyer - Jack Daniels Chevrolet [pic credit: GM media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/289103.jpg)
