Lap-by-Lap: Bristol

Lap 500 -- Matt Kenseth has won the Sharpie 500 by .592 seconds over Kyle Busch. The rest of the top 10 -- Earnhardt Jr., Riggs, Gordon, Hamlin, Edwards, Newman, Burton and Johnson.

Lap 488 -- Kyle Busch acquires second from Junior, but he's running out of laps.

Lap 485 -- The lead is now 1.4 seconds for Kenseth.

Lap 481 -- Kenseth running into lapped traffic. Can Junior capitalize?

Lap 470 -- Now it's .728 as Kenseth is pulling away again.

Lap 468 -- Junior now .565 behind Kenseth.

Lap 463 -- Gordon drives around Edwards for fourth. In fact, he's slipping back quickly as Riggs and Denny Hamlin also go by.

Lap 459 -- Edwards slides high and Kyle Busch takes third.

Lap 455 -- Here we go again. Green flag.

Lap 449 -- Kenseth leads the leaders onto pit road. He's happy with what he's got. It's Kenseth, Junior, Edwards and Kyle Busch in that order.

Lap 445 -- Sadler bends it up worse this time. Something must have broken, sending him spinning. That's caution No. 10.

Lap 444 -- Gordon around Burton for fourth, Riggs will get around, too.

Lap 431 -- Kenseth obviously turned up the wick a little or Busch's tires are going off. He's stretched the lead to 1.596 seconds.

Lap 420 -- Busch now .892 seconds behind Kenseth.

Lap 408 -- And Busch captures second. He's 1.295 seconds behind Kenseth now.

Lap 404 -- Kyle Busch blows by Burton for third and sets his sights on the top two.

Lap 399 -- Kenseth drives under Earnhardt Jr. for the lead. Junior may have gotten down on the apron.

Lap 392 -- Kurt Busch slowing, as the car is jumping out of gear. He's behind the wall, trying to repair the transmission.

Lap 387 -- Green, green, green. Great stop by Junior gives him the lead.

Lap 384 -- It's Junior, Kenseth and Burton off pit road as some teams may have made their last stops of the night.

Lap 382 -- J.J. Yeley gets the worst of a two-car incident involving Sadler and Nemechek. Caution's out.

Lap 368 -- Kurt Busch goes down a lap.

Lap 355 -- Kyle Busch has had an up-and-down night. After a slow pit stop early, he fell way back. But he's now fifth.

Lap 334 -- Back to green as Kenseth gives Burton a try for the lead, but can't make it stick.

Lap 326 -- Busy pit road. A little fire from some gas spill. Looks like Burton, Kenseth, Junior came out first, second and third. Sadler and Kurt Busch are going to be penalized for pit road violations.

Lap 324 -- David Stremme finds the wall. Caution's out. Martin Truex Jr. gets his lap back.

Lap 318 -- Kenseth zooms past Burton, who is struggling with this long green-flag run. Edwards is up to fourth.

Lap 300 -- Your top five: Burton, Kenseth, Junior, Gordon and Edwards. If that isn't a recipe for disaster -- based on recent run-ins -- I don't know what is.

Lap 294 -- And now Greg Biffle gets lapped.

Lap 289 -- Stewart about to go a lap down as Burton is in his rear-view mirror.

Lap 275 -- Teammates Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart are currently tied for eighth in the standings as they run, as Mark Martin, mired a lap down, is now 10th.

Lap 270 -- Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick have moved back into the top 20.

Lap 250 -- And we're halfway home. It's all downhill from here.

Lap 242 -- Back to green for now. Burton leads Kenseth.

Lap 239 -- Busch comes in to repair the fender and gives up second place.

Lap 234 -- Green out and Clint Bowyer smacks the wall hard. He's been treated and released. Apparently a wheel came off as he went into the corner.

Lap 226 -- Reed Sorenson has a flat tire and can't get to pit road. He spins out directly in front of the leaders. Caution's out. Kurt Busch has some damage on the left front fender.

Lap 222 -- Busch gets around Kenseth for second after Gordon gets hung on the outside.

Lap 217 -- Gordon gets the green and we're back to full speed ahead. However, he can't put away Martin and Burton goes underneath for the lead.

Lap 211 -- Caution as Scott Wimmer slows. He got run into by Mark Martin on the restart. That may give Martin his lap back but he has damage to the No. 6.

Lap 209 -- Back to green at Bristol.

Lap 205 -- Gordon, Burton, Kenseth, Kurt Busch lead the way as the leaders pit.

Lap 203 -- Kevin Harvick hits hard as a right front tire goes flat. Caution's out. Waltrip gets the free pass.

Lap 200 -- Your top 10: Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Scott Riggs, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Elliott Sadler and Ryan Newman.

Lap 195 -- Right now, Martin, Hamlin, Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch are separated by 14 points in the standings, as they currently run. Kasey Kahne is 72 points behind Busch.

Lap 181 -- Jeff Gordon goes to the lead as the race is now an hour old.

Lap 170 -- Kenseth has been steadily running the fastest laps and is now fourth.

Lap 153 -- Burton back to the lead.

Lap 150 -- Your top five: Edwards, Burton, Gordon, Junior, Harvick.

Lap 138 -- Edwards gets Junior for the lead.

Lap 134 -- Burton now only trailing Junior and second-place Carl Edwards as the fresher tires are working.

Lap 117 -- Guess what? Dale Earnhardt Jr. stays out and gets five points for leading. That's one more position he won't have to earn at Richmond in two weeks, if Kahne and Biffle don't lead tonight.

Lap 116 -- Pit stops under way. Have to wait to see how both pit roads empty out here. It's Burton and then ... Jeff Gordon by an eyebrow over Kurt Busch.

Lap 115 -- Caution as David Gilliland finds the wall. David Stremme will get his lap back.

Lap 110 -- Right now, Burton -- who dropped to ninth in the standings last week -- would be fourth if the race ended now.

Lap 100 -- Your top five: Burton, Busch, Kenseth, Harvick, Jeff Gordon.

Lap 94 -- Green flag. Burton leads.

Lap 88 -- And Kyle Petty goes around while trying to pass the No. 22. Caution. Travis Kvapil will get his lap back. Mark Martin would be the first car down a lap on the restart.

Lap 77 -- And Burton is back around Busch for the lead. Apparently the water temperature is back down to normal levels in the No. 31.

Lap 70 -- Back to green. Busch leading Burton again.

Lap 65 -- Kyle Petty will have to start at the end of the longest line for his crew going over the wall too soon. And Mark Martin has been given a one-lap penalty for pitting outside of the box.

Lap 63 -- Pit stops under way. Burton's car may be running hot, since water was coming out of the overflow. Busch wins the race off pit road. Junior will restart 25th, two spots behind Kasey Kahne -- who is chasing him for the final Chase spot.

Lap 61 -- Sterling Marlin brings out the first caution when he finds the wall. That keeps Junior from going a lap down and Joe Nemechek is the lucky dog.

Lap 54 -- Kenseth gets under Burton and we have a new leader.

Lap 50 -- The front of the field stays static as we remain under green. Greg Biffle is up to 17th after starting 35th.

Lap 46 -- Bobby Labonte sixth, Kyle Petty seventh. Shades of Petty performances past!

Lap 35 -- Your top five right now: Burton, Kenseth, Busch, Harvick, Sadler.

Lap 26 -- Junior now up to 35th, but the leaders are coming.

Lap 21 -- Matt Kenseth is around Busch for second.

Lap 20 -- Tony Stewart, who started fifth, is 13th and falling fast.

Lap 12 -- Jeff Burton gets underneath Kurt Busch for the lead. Brian Vickers slowing, apparently a right front tire down.

Lap 8 -- The key here is for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to make sure he doesn't go a lap down early. He's 40th, only about six seconds ahead of the leader. Derrike Cope's car goes to the garage.

Green flag -- Kurt Busch leads into Turn 1, only 500 laps to go!

7:52 p.m. ET -- Apparently, NASCAR is telling drivers to stay above the yellow line in Turns 3 and 4 when entering the pits, or they may face a speeding penalty. We'll see how that plays out.

7:49 p.m. ET -- Last two Bristol night races: 16 and 9 caution flags and 18 and 17 lead changes. Expect about the same tonight.

7:46 p.m. ET -- Crank 'em up, boys. Let's get this show on the road.

7:43 p.m. ET -- Benny's back! Glad to see him. That's a very good sign.

7:38 p.m. ET -- A very quiet national anthem being sung by the children of the drivers and crews, courtesy of Motor Racing Outreach. Apparently we lost the audio for a little bit. They were very good, though.

7:37 p.m. ET -- Invocation.

7:30 p.m. ET -- You thought the race would actually start now? HA! We're still an anthem, a prayer and several more cliches away!

The actual start time of a Nextel Cup race is only an estimate, much like the last "two minutes" of any NCAA basketball game.

7:28 p.m. ET -- Omari Hardwick from The Guardian and Saved gets the ride with Wally this week.

7:20 p.m. ET -- Bill Weber just hit us with an interesting factoid: Cale Yarborough started fourth when he won the first night race at Bristol in 1978. Matt Kenseth, who was 6 at the time, starts fourth tonight. And his name is much easier to spell.

7:07 p.m. ET -- Just heard the phrase, "E Ticket Ride." Unless you're at least 40, that probably elicits the same quizzical look as "carbon paper," "keypunch card" and "CB radio."

In case you're wondering, the original Disneyland had ticket books with coupons ranging from A to E, with E being the most exciting rides, like the Matterhorn Bobsleds or the Rocket to the Moon.

Yep, you couldn't just get on any old ride back when Walt was alive. And at the end of the day, you were trying to figure out what to waste the A tickets on -- Main Street Horsedrawn Carriage or Swiss Family Robinson treehouse?

7 p.m. ET -- And welcome to Bristol, as the TV broadcast on TNT kicks off.

6:10 p.m. ET -- The current weather at Thunder Valley -- 86 degrees and clear. There's a slight chance of an isolated thunderstorm, but for the most tonight, expect the action to be on the track, not over it.