For the second straight week, a Hendrick Motorsports driver receives multiple "lucky dog" passes to get back on lead lap, this time in the #5 car of Kyle Busch, who was 6 laps down early in the race. He was credited with 5 lucky dog passes, two more than #24 Gordon got the week before. The last one, putting Busch back on the lead lap, occured on lap 63. Resulting problems by many other drivers between there and the end (most of the field had already pitted for the final time) found Busch scored 9th at the end. The TV coverage was not clear how the #5 got the 6th lap back, can only assume that he had stayed out on the first round of green flag stops and got one back the old fashioned way.
The race itself was a jumble. The 9th and 10th place cars in the Chase (#24 Gordon and #8 Earnhardt) both spun in turn one between laps 67 and 73, neither bringing out the caution. The caution would later fly for other incidents, and both drivers would make use of it by pitting late. This helped both drivers climb back up from around 30th to finsih in the teens, combined with the 11th place driver (#9 Kahne) spinning on the last lap and finishing behind them.
It's not yet clear, but the original unofficial results had Gordon 15th, Johnson (#48) 19th and Jr. 20th, but now they show 13th, 17th and 18th, with former 9th and 10th place finishers Ryan Newman and Ron Fellows being put back to 31st and 32nd, bumping each car between 11th and 32nd up two spots each. (Without this change, the #5 would have finished 11th) [11pm UPDATE: NASCAR has revised the finish order again, moving the #12 of Newman back up to 8th, and moving the former sixth place finisher #60 Boris Said to 31st.]
The #29 of Kevin Harvick, 3rd place driver in the points, won the race, passing Tony Stewart (#20) at the line with three laps to go. Stewart would finish 2nd, with Jamie McMurray (#26), Robby Gordon (#7) and Carl Edwards (#99) rounding out the top five.
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