Bowyer wins Richmond after Hamlin & Earnhardt falter

Clint Bowyer celebrates

CIA Stock Photo

Clint Bowyer found himself in the right place at the right time to notch his first victory of the season Saturday night, ducking underneath Kyle Busch and the spinning car of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. with two laps to go to win the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

Bowyer lead the final three laps of the green-white-checker overtime session to beat out Busch and Mark Martin for his second career Sprint Cup victory.

“It’s awesome," said Bowyer in Victory Lane. “I messed up in qualifying and let these guys down. but we dug deep, kept fighting, and look where we are."

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s crew works on his car after a late race wreck

CIA Stock Photo

Bowyer was running third when Earnhardt, Jr. and Busch bounced off each other while battling for the lead with two laps go to. Earnhardt spun and backed into the wall while Busch managed to gather up his car in time to avoid hitting Earnhardt.

Earnhardt was looking to putting an end to his own 71-race winless streak, with his last win coming in this same race two years ago

After pitting to repair the damage, Earnhardt re-joined the field to finish 15th.

“He’s gonna need security from all of us," said Earnhardt of Busch. “I haven’t seen the replays, but (crew chief Tony Eury, Jr.) said it looks like he got loose underneath us. It’s just disappointing because we’ve been running real good and were in a position to win."

Busch managed to hold off Mark Martin in the final laps to finish second, brushing off the contact with Earnhardt as nothing more that a racing incident

“We were just racing hard there," Busch said. “Junior and I were racing hard in turn three and I got loose. I was just a product of good, hard racing. I apologize to those guys."

Tony Stewart finished fourth, followed by Martin Truex, Jr.

For much of the night, it looked as though Denny Hamlin would run away with the race, starting from the pole to lead the first 205 laps.

Coming off a win on Friday night’s Nationwide Series race, Hamlin ran flawlessly in Saturday’s event, looking for his first Sprint Cup victory at his home track.

Hamlin enjoyed a comfortable lead going into the final 20 laps before a cut tire dropped him into the clutches of Earnhardt and Busch, who split Hamlin in a thrilling three-wide pass with 17 laps to go that put Earnhardt, Jr. into the top spot.

Hamlin’s tire finally let go with nine laps to go, setting up a shootout between Earnhardt and Busch for the victory.

“Unbelievable," said Hamlin following the race. “You can’t whine about it. It just wasn’t meant to be."

It was another typical Saturday night short track race, and lots of teams had torn-up racecars to prove it.

By far the biggest wreck of the night occurred on lap 229, when J.J. Yeley clipped the front of Carl Edwards’ car, triggering a multi-car crash that collected Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch and series point leader Jeff Burton.

Burton’s DNF dropped him to second in points behind new leader Kyle Busch. Earnhardt, Jr. remains in third. Bowyer’s victory shot him up three spots to fourth position while Kevin Harvick retains fifth.

Post-race press conference transcript

Results