Bowyer wins as Hamlin, Junior come oh so close

RICHMOND, Va. -- In a heartbreaking race for Virginia native Denny Hamlin and victory-starved Dale Earnhardt Jr., Clint Bowyer stole a win in Saturday night's Crown Royal 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

In fact, Bowyer's victory was merely a footnote during an evening that produced high drama in NASCAR's top series.

Clint Bowyer celebrates

Within three laps of a victory that would have ended a two-year, 71-race drought, Earnhardt Jr. smacked the outside wall in Turn 3 after Kyle Busch slid up the track into Junior's No. 88 Chevrolet as the two drivers battled for the lead on Lap 398 (watch video).

Busch held off Mark Martin to finish second, after angry fans threw beer cans over the catch fence onto the track as the cars circled under the caution period leading up to a green-white-checkered finish. Tony Stewart posted a solid fourth-place finish, followed by Martin Truex Jr.

Bowyer, who won for the first time this year and the second time in his career, pulled away on the two-lap dash that extended the race 10 laps beyond its scheduled distance.

Hamlin had the race's dominant car, but the No. 11 Toyota wasn't a factor at the end. Hamlin led a track-record 381 laps before surrendering the top spot to Earnhardt on Lap 383 after developing a slow leak in his right-front tire (watch video). Hamlin finished 24th, three laps down. Earnhardt salvaged a 15th-place result and remained third in the championship standings.

"We took advantage of a misfortune," Bowyer said, "but our Chevrolet was fast all day. ... It was pretty wild up there -- it was bound to happen. They were racing hard. That's what racing at Richmond is all about, in my opinion. It just didn't work out [for either]."

But the story was the near-win for Earnhardt, who came tantalizingly close to his first points victory as a driver for Hendrick Motorsports.

Denny Hamlin deflated

"I've seen the replay, and Tony [Eury] Jr. [Earnhardt's crew chief] said it looked like Kyle got loose underneath me," Earnhardt said. "We'd been racing each other before, and we had no problem. I've been priding myself on running good all year, and [Saturday night] we got wrecked. It's disappointing."

Busch had his own version of events.

"Junior and I were just racing hard into Turn 3," said Busch, who took over the championship lead by 18 points over Jeff Burton. "It was just a product of good, hard racing. If I had wanted to do it deliberately, I would have waited till the last lap, when I probably still could have won the race."

Hamlin led 229 of the first 230 laps in a race that produced little carnage until contact between Carl Edwards' Ford and J.J. Yeley's Toyota on Lap 230 triggered a massive pile-up in Turn 3 that necessitated a stoppage to remove debris from the track (watch video).

Sustaining severe damage in the 14-car melee were the Dodges of Kurt Busch and Patrick Carpentier, the Fords of Matt Kenseth and David Gilliland and the Chevrolet of two-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. Burton also caught a piece of the crash but sustained only minor damage; he remained on the lead lap and finished 11th.

Jeff Gordon went a lap down to Hamlin on Lap 43 of the opening green-flag run, but Gordon got the lap back on a free pass for a restart on Lap 145 and rallied for a ninth-place finish.