The Winston: Newman's last lap battle

Newman, a protege of Roger Penske, won $750,000 for first place, increased by the preliminary rounds to $794,326 - more than Newman had made in any prior year of his life.

The race came down to a five-lap shoot-out following a caution, Newman had a terrific restart and appeared to be running away to victory but Dale Earnhardt Jr came slicing through the pack, driving his Chevrolet right into the bumper of Newman's Ford.

He could have spun him out, but opted not to. Newman's car wiggled just enough to scare his entire Penske Racing team, but he quickly gathered the car and avoided a crash.

"Of course, I'll play it over a thousand times in my head for probably weeks wondering how I could have done something different," said Earnhardt. "I got into the back of him in Turn 2 and I didn't take advantage of it. Getting to him was easy, but getting by him was a different story."

Newman said: "He caught up with me with about two laps to go, cut underneath me a couple of times, just he couldn't complete the pass. He got up underneath me pretty good there that last lap coming off Turn 2, and I got pretty loose and just kind of saved it, and he came up to me after the race and said 'nice save and good job'."

For full race results click here.