The leaders had no choice but to pit, with those who had made their stops under green cycling through to the front of the pack for the restart. Johnson ad Edwards' battle for the lead had suddenly become the battle for eleventh. Biffle now led from Montoya, Busch, Jamie McMurray and Jeff Burton but when the green flag waved Biffle overcooked it badly going into turn two and spun.
Startled by the leader spinning in front of him Montoya instinctively hit the brakes, which allowed the opportunistic Busch to nip through and grab the lead. Little did anyone realise at the time, the battle for the race victory ended there and then.
With no caution flag waved Busch soon settled into a rhythm, running two to three seconds ahead of Montoya who in turn had McMurray and the rest hot on his heels. As the race passed the half way point most of the attention was on Robby Gordon and the hugely impressive Ambrose as they both charged up the leaderboard after getting shuffled back during the pitstops.
Gordon had made it as high as sixth after restarting 13th before contact with the already delayed car of Kurt Busch in turn two sent Gordon's #7 Dodge spinning right in front of Haas CNC Racing's Max Papis, whose glancing blow to the front of Gordon's car was enough to stop the #7 dead in its tracks.
The second caution of the race ensued with Busch maintaining his lead after making his second and final stop of the day. Montoya remained in second with McMurray third, Ambrose an incredible fourth and Gilliland fifth and as the field circulated behind the pace car it seemed just a matter of time before first Montoya and then Ambrose gobbled up the race leader.
The leader, however, had other plans and made the perfect getaway on the restart, forcing the rest to squabble among themselves as the race entered its final 40 laps. And squabble they did with Ambrose grabbing third from McMurray at the hairpin on lap 74 but tapping Montoya into a spin in the process, drawing a third caution flag but elevating the Australian born driver into second spot in the famed #21 Wood Brothers Ford.
