This exciting finish saw the top three in points finish 1-2-3 and extend their lead over the rest of the Chasers.
Qualifying
When qualifying ended Juan Pablo Montoya had posted the fastest time and looked to have the first pole of his career. However post qualifying inspection showed that his rear shocks had more gas in them than NASCAR allows.
Montoya's time was disallowed so Jimmie Johnson started from the pole. Montoya relied on car owner points to start the race from the 42nd spot.
Mark Martin started on the outside of the front row. Matt Kenseth and Elliott Sadler made up row number two. Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top five.
Drop Of The Green
Chasers Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth took the early lead as Mark Martin fell back to third.
Big news right on the start as Chaser Clint Bowyer pulled out of line to pass before the starting line. NASCAR issued a pass-through penalty forcing Bowyer to drive down pit road once obeying the pit road speed limit. This put Bowyer nearly a lap down.
Storylines
Clint Bowyer was not the only Chaser to run into problems today. In addition to his mistake on the start other Chasers had issues including:
- For the third week in-a-row regular season winner Kyle Busch had a mechanical problem. This week he reported an intermittant engine issue.
- Point leader Carl Edwards twice had troubles on pit road.
- Matt Kenseth was missing a lugnut and fell back into the field.
- Kenseth again had a problem on lap 123. He made contact with Casey Mears and spun but fortunately did not make contact.
- Tony Stewart spun on lap 130 after contact with Brian Vickers on the race track. That contact followed a pit road incident where Stewart bumped some of Vickers' crew members. Stewart spent extended time on pit road fixing the front splitter late in the race.
Chasing The Checkers
With 60 laps to go the race standings looked a lot like the Sprint Cup point standings. Carl Edwards was in the lead over Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle.
Johnson got past Edwards on pit road and had the lead as a late green flag flew with 38 laps to go. Edwards made a pass for the win in turn four of the last lap but slid up into the wall and gave it back as they came to the line.
Top Ten
- Jimmie Johnson
- Carl Edwards
- Greg Biffle
- Jeff Gordon
- Matt Kenseth
- Kevin Harvick
- Jeff Burton
- David Ragan
- A.J. Allmendinger
- Eliott Sadler
The Points
The top three in the race are the top three in the points so they remain knotted at the top of the standings. Johnson is the leader by ten points over Edwards with Greg Biffle just 30 points behind.
Drivers now effectively eliminated from the Championship battle now include Dale Earnhardt Jr. Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch.
- Jimmie Johnson -0
- Carl Edwards -10
- Greg Biffle -30
- Jeff Burton -121
- Kevin Harvick -136
- Jeff Gordon -143
- Clint Bowyer -164
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. -190
- Matt Kenseth -192
- Denny Hamlin -243
- Tony Stewart -255
- Kyle Busch -311
