Bowyer wins Busch at Richmond

Bowyer was a front-runner all night but took advantage of a good pitstop in the last caution of the race to overtake Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton. On the last restart with 23 laps to go, he passed Carl Edwards and David Ragan who stayed out with old tyres, and then pulled out from the pack to lead until the chequered flag.

"I didn't think we were going to be able to get it done," said Bowyer. "Matt and Jeff, just like Phoenix, the veteran drivers make slight adjustments on the car and keep making it better and better but a good pitstop there in the end put us where we needed to be."

Bowyer won the race driving exactly the same car that he raced for the first time two weeks ago at Phoenix for Richard Childress Racing. The car has in fact raced only twice this season, winning both times.

Kenseth looked the man to beat until he his crew had trouble fitting the right front wheel on his Roush Fenway Ford during his last pitstop. He was leading the race when he pitted with 27 laps to go and emerged third after his long stop.

With ten laps to go he overtook Jeff Burton for second but had nothing to do against Bowyer, who had a cushion of more than two seconds ahead and enough pace to respond to any attack.

Burton led 136 of the 250 laps of the race, the first of them after overtaking polesitter Denny Hamlin. The Joe Gibbs driver had a short race crashing into the inside wall and out of second place, when he was tapped from behind by Kenseth on lap 24.

The two were battling for position and when Hamlin was going out of turn two, he apparently didn't leave enough room on the outside for the No. 17 car and got just barely hit by Kenseth who tried to avoid the crash. Hamlin returned to the track after repairs in the garage to finish 41st.

Reigning champion Kevin Harvick, who had won for Richard Chlidress in his past three Busch races at Richmond, could not replicate his success this time driving for his own team, but still had a solid run to finish fourth and make him a more solid second in the points.

Carl Edwards' pitstop gamble in the end didn't pay off as he finished thirteenth, struggling to maintain position as everyone around him had fresher rubber. Despite his result, he still has a healthy 406 point lead over Harvick in the driver standings.

Ahead of him and overtaking the Roush Fenway driver on the last lap was Juan Pablo Montoya, who had a good first race at Richmond. He ran in the top ten for almost half of the distance but wasn't very happy with the handling of his car out of the corners.

"There was no traction in the car so that just really killed us," Montoya said. "It was tight in the center and loose off. It was hard but the team did a good job."

"For some reason there was dirt on the front tires and when I went to restart and went to turn right the thing went straight to the wall so I had to check-up starting. But it's okay."

David Reutimann emerged as the best placed Toyota, finishing ninth and claiming his fourth top-ten of the season. He is now fourth in the drivers championship, just 15 points adrift from fellow Toyota driver Dave Blaney.

Pos  Driver                 Make       Laps
 1.  Clint Bowyer           Chevrolet   250   
 2.  Matt Kenseth           Ford        250
 3.  Jeff Burton            Chevrolet   250
 4.  Kevin Harvick          Chevrolet   250
 5.  Kyle Busch             Chevrolet   250
 6.  Greg Biffle            Ford        250
 7.  Casey Mears            Chevrolet   250
 8.  Reed Sorenson          Dodge       250
 9.  David Reutimann        Toyota      250
10.  Scott Wimmer           Chevrolet   250
11.  Juan Montoya           Dodge       250
12.  J.J. Yeley             Chevrolet   250
13.  Carl Edwards           Ford        250
14.  David Ragan            Ford        250
15.  Regan Smith            Chevrolet   249
16.  Dave Blaney            Toyota      249
17.  Scott Riggs            Dodge       249
18.  Shane Huffman          Chevrolet   249
19.  Jamie McMurray         Ford        249
20.  David Gilliland        Ford        249
21.  Jon Wood               Ford        248
22.  Bobby Hamilton Jr.     Ford        248
23.  Tony Raines            Chevrolet   248
24.  Stephen Leicht         Ford        248
25.  Ward Burton            Ford        248
26.  Marcos Ambrose         Ford        248
27.  Brad Coleman           Chevrolet   247
28.  Justin Diercks         Chevrolet   247
29.  Derrike Cope           Chevrolet   246
30.  Bobby Santos           Toyota      246
31.  Brent Sherman          Chevrolet   246
32.  Steve Wallace          Dodge       245
33.  Mike Bliss             Dodge       237
34.  Kyle Krisiloff         Ford        234
35.  Brad Keselowski        Chevrolet   221
36.  Mike Wallace           Chevrolet   219
37.  Jason Leffler          Toyota      216
38.  Dange Hanniford        Chevrolet   135
39.  D.J. Kennington        Dodge        85 
40.  Brett Rowe             Ford         84 
41.  Denny Hamlin           Chevrolet    80 
42.  Kevin Lepage           Ford         28 
43.  Sam Hornish Jr         Dodge        16