Incident-packed race for Hendrick trio

The race looked promising for the team when the green flag waved for the first time, as Jimmie Johnson grabbed the lead from polesitter Brian Vickers, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr with Jeff Gordon running close behind in fourth.

Later Earnhardt grabbed the lead and remained in control until a piece of debris got stuck in the car's grille, raising the engine's temperature worryingly. He was forced to let Vickers through to try to use his car to remove the debris, which it eventually did.

However, Earnhardt's race was later compromised by a very loose car, which made his afternoon a very busy one behind the wheel. He ran in the top-ten in the second half of the race, gambled on staying out when the leaders pitted for the last time, but ended up brushing the wall on the following restart.

"It's been the same old story," Earnhardt said after finishing 23rd. "We show up fast but we can't put a whole race together. So we've got to do some homework. We've got to science it out and figure out what the heck is going on, because we are sure fast when that race starts. But I've been like that my whole career."

Almost halfway through the race teammates Johnson and Jeff Gordon made contact while running three-wide out of turn four with Tony Stewart. The reigning champion was forced to pit to repair a bent left-front fender and replace a deflated left-front tyre, dropping a lap down, while Gordon crashed later when a tyre blew, apparently from damage from the incident with Johnson and Stewart.

"I just hate that that got the 48 involved," Gordon said. "We always try to have a lot of respect for one another out there and it got really dicey there on that restart, and we got three and four wide and my car was really good rolling through the middle there and I guess Tony (Stewart) got to the outside of the 48.

"And even when my spotter didn't say anything till late, I still gave him I felt like enough room, but it just got so narrow off of (turn) four."

While Johnson and Edwards remained third and fourth in the standing, Gordon's 42nd place finish has seen him drop three positions down to ninth in the championship. However, he says he is not too worried about being 'on the bubble' as far as his Chase hopes are concerned.

"I'm relieved because we've been going every week going 'well we can't take too big of a risk but we got to push hard enough," Gordon said. "I'm relieved and now we just don't worry about anything.

"We can just drive as hard as we can, do anything we possibly can, and just go all out and that's all we can do and we'll see where we end up."

Casey Mears in the fourth Hendrick car had an uneventful race but finished 18th, the first car a lap down.