Kurt Busch finished out of the top 10 for the second straight week. Credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images

Gordon apologizes for spinning Busch

Another decent run for Dale Jr.; Tires cut easily at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- The biggest incident of a day that saw 16 caution flags had to be the late-race fracas between Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch that saw the latter crunch into the wall in Turn 3.

Gordon had been trying to pass Busch for several laps, and the defending series champion was not giving an inch.

Gordon drove aggressively at Martinsville after going three laps down. Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

It came to a head in Turn 3 on Lap 448, when Gordon drove deep under Busch, who cut down the track, and the right front fender of Gordon's car nudged the left rear quarterpanel of Busch's Ford out of the way.

Busch spun hard into the wall, but recovered quickly and only lost one lap. He raced to the end and finished 19th, but as Gordon came around to put him another lap down, he rubbed the side of Gordon's car -- hard.

"We've had three good runs this year and then three bad runs back to back to back," Busch said after the race. "We just had a good car today and towards the end it was a shame. I'm disappointed. It was our first race for Crown Royal in a points race and we just ran out of patience again with another Hendrick car. It's a shame.

Final lapsGordon comes back from three laps down for the victory Spin cycleGordon bumps Busch and sends him into the wall Early cautionNewman suffers damage after contact with Riggs Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

"We shouldn't have finished 19th today, but that's the way it goes," he continued. "We'll bounce back from it and I'm just disappointed for Crown Royal."

Asked about the rub of Gordon later in the race, Busch stated, "That was just showing my displeasure."

For his part, Gordon called the incident hard racing. "I'm sorry that I hit him," Gordon said from Victory Lane. "I didn't mean to get into him.

"I think we were just going for same territory. And it was late in the race and battling hard and I drove inside of him and I felt that I had my car to the inside.

"I'm sure he would say the opposite. We're two people fighting for the same position and neither one of us was going to give it up."

Struggle, struggle, toil and trouble

It's getting so bad lately that if Dale Earnhardt Jr. fell out of bed in the morning, he'd miss the floor. His run of bad luck continued Sunday on the first lap, when he collected a piece of the opening-lap wiggle by polesitter Scott Riggs.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored his second straight top-15 finish, which moved him up a spot in the standings. Credit: Chris Stanford/ Getty Images

After pitting for repairs, he was stuck to the rear again and the inevitable beating and banging eventually caused more damage to the left front fender.

Around Lap 200, the fender started rubbing on the outside shoulder of the tire, causing great plumes of smoke to roll out of the Bud Chevy. It looked a lot worse than it turned out to be, but still was a cause for concern.

Through all of that, Earnhardt battled to a 13th-place finish, which pushed him up one spot to 16th in the point standings after six races.

"It was quite an eventful race," Earnhardt's crew chief Pete Rondeau said after the race. "We came out of quite a few holes today and ended up good. I'm pretty happy with 13th here. The car is all torn up but it's another decent finish for us."

Early woes for Newman

As much success as Ryan Newman has had here in qualifying, it hasn't translated to race day, and that trend continued on the first lap of Sunday's race.

Ryan Newman scored his first top-five of the season. Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Polesitter Scott Riggs wiggled coming off Turn 4 on the first circuit, and he and Newman collided. The contact cut one of Newman's tires, and he slowed to a stop in Turn 4. NASCAR waved the yellow flag, and once it was displayed, Newman drove on around to the pits.

NASCAR officials were not amused, and they docked Newman a lap for stopping to bring out the caution flag.

He got that lap back early, and by 110 laps was running 30th.

He wound up finishing fourth after electing to stay out when the rest of the leaders pitted. He had the lead with less than 50 laps to go, but Martin, Gordon and Kahne all passed him in the run to the checkered flag.

"I'm pretty whipped after that," Newman said. "It was a good run. We've got four straight top fives at Martinsville, and we moved back into the top 10 in the standings, so we'll go to Texas next week and try to win there again."

Soft tires are cut early and often

Tire problems continued to plague teams this weekend at Martinsville, as most of the early caution flags were caused by flats.

Advance Auto Parts 500 Results Nextel Cup Standings

The softer compound makes a difference in the way the cars handle, and any contact with another car can cut the sidewall. At Bristol, Newman tangled with Ken Schrader and cut down a tire on Schrader's exhaust pipes.

Big day for Joe Gibbs Racing

Chris Bristol Credit: Grant Halverson/Getty Images

On Saturday, Joe Gibbs Racing was undefeated.

Bobby Labonte won the Craftsman Truck Series event at Martinsville, and JGR diversity drivers Aric Almirola and Chris Bristol won NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series events in Virginia and North Carolina, respectively.

Bristol became the first African-American driver to win a feature race at Hickory Motor Speedway in its 55-year history.

Almirola, an Hispanic driver from Florida, won his first feature of the season at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Va.