Keselowski beats Bowyer at Bristol

The 24-year-old made his point against the driver he is trying to beat to this year's title when he grabbed the lead of the race with 23 laps to go, following the last restart, as Bowyer made a mistake at turn two under the pressure.

From then on, Keselowski was able to pace the field all the way to the chequered flag, taking a small but significant step towards his championship hopes.

"This is Bristol man, this is cool!" said Keselowski. "I've always loved this place, always ran good here and although we struggled in qualifying it really didn't matter. The car was just so good in the race.

"Then we got some help with Clint. I don't exactly know what happened to him there, but I felt like if I put a little bit of pressure on him I might catch a break and it seems to be what might have happened there."

Bowyer finished second and somehow limited damage in the championship standing by virtue of leading the most laps during the race. However he couldn't hide the disappointment of losing a race that looked his up until the last restart.

"I just can't believe it," said Bowyer, who now has a reduced 122-point margin in the standings. "I just got loose down there and made a mistake and gave it away."

Greg Biffle finished third ahead of polesitter Cale Gale, while Rusty Wallace's David Stremme rounded out the top five. RCR's Scott Wimmer was sixth while Kyle Busch recovered to finish seventh in the No.18 JGR car, following a pit lane penalty for a missing lug nut during a stop.

Dario Franchitti had probably his best oval race in the series thus far, leading for 87 laps after starting from the front row of the grid. His hopes of a stronger finish than the 11th place he claimed in the end were dashed on the last stint when he struggled with a tight car in the traffic.

"That last set (of tyres), we were struggling with tightness and it was making it difficult," Franchitti said. "And then the 22 car (Canadian Andrew Ranger), he was racing me like it was for the win and he was a lap down. Absolutely gave me no room whatsoever and that really hurt us.

"Stremme did a better job getting through the traffic and that was it and I got freight trained after that. I pushed the front fender in trying to get past the 22 and that got us tight."

Defending champion Carl Edwards had a tough night, getting involved in a wreck on lap 87. Teenage sensation Joey Logano also had a difficult day, which started with a crash during his qualifying attempt. However he recovered to finish 16th and on the lead lap.