BRISTOL, Tenn. -- The old girl has taken something of a beating lately, and it hasn't come from the usual clash of fenders on concrete. They gave her a new surface, presented her with a new car, and placed a new playoff system within helmet-tossing distance of her annual night race. A few conservative races later, and people were calling her boring. Ruined, even. Even her most ardent supporters hung their heads and wondered what had become of Bristol Motor Speedway.

Nothing, as it turned out. Maybe she needed an adjustment period. Maybe she was lying in wait. Because Sunday afternoon at the last possible moment, the real Bristol -- the ornery, cantankerous tease of a half-mile -- struck back.

And it was the cars of Joe Gibbs Racing that she sent spinning, snatching victory from the organization's drivers again and again and again. Kyle Busch was the leader until she locked up his power steering and sent him careening into the inside wall. Tony Stewart was vying for the lead until she sent Kevin Harvick underneath him to shove him up the track. Denny Hamlin was the leader until her 36-degree corner banking siphoned the gasoline away from his car's fuel pickup, leaving him sputtering on a restart with two laps to go.

Combined the three Gibbs drivers led 372 of 506 laps in the overtime event, taking successive turns at the front like runners in a relay race. But somehow it was Jeff Burton celebrating in Victory Lane, the veteran Richard Childress Racing pilot a walking, talking testament to how deliciously cruel this little big place can be.

"You've got to finish these things," said Gibbs team president J.D. Gibbs. "I kind of equate this place a lot to Daytona and Talladega. You've got to finish it first before you can enjoy it. It's nice to have really good cars, but it's just so frustrating to go through it and not capitalize. We've been here before, and to not do it, that hurts."

One by one, she swatted them away. First it was Busch, the winner last week at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the points leader entering Sunday -- and still, by 30 over Greg Biffle -- who was briefly on point until his steering wheel turned to stone. "The steering is stuck. I can't steer it," he said over the team radio, a victim of the same failed power steering pump that had claimed Hamlin a week earlier, and doomed Busch to a 17th-place finish. "We have to figure out what's going on here," crew chief Steve Addington said.

It was only a prelude to the main event, dramatics that while not quite of the "rattle his cage" variety -- what the late Dale Earnhardt said he was trying to do to Terry Labonte when he spun him out on the final lap here in 1999 -- still sported that definitive Bristol stamp. Stewart led 267 laps Sunday, more than any other driver, an effort that absolutely, completely deserved to win the race. But at Bristol, that's not necessarily good enough.

Caution flew with nine to go after Brian Vickers' car spat debris onto the racetrack. Stewart wanted to pit. Crew chief Greg Zipadelli talked him out of it. On the restart his teammate Hamlin sneaked by him, and then Harvick tried to do the same, wedging the No. 29 car inside the rear of Stewart's Toyota with less than two laps remaining. Suddenly there was spinning and much cursing over the radio, wrecked racecars and hurt feelings. Stewart has now led 769 of 1,506 laps contested at Bristol in the past three spring events. The best he has to show for it is 12th. (Continued)