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.

"I thought I left him plenty of room, but I don't know," he said after placing 14th Sunday. "I was far enough ahead of him that I didn't see where he hit me or when he hit me. I'm sure somehow it was my fault. I'm just sorry I got in his way."

Added Harvick: "It was mine to lose at that point, and I lost it. I got up under there with [two] laps to go, it was time to go, and I clipped the apron and I just lost the thing. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't want to spin out. It was just one of them deals where I was trying to get all I could."

Food City 500

Official Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet
2.	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet
3.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
4.	Greg Biffle	Ford
5.	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet
6.	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
7.	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
8.	Aric Almirola	Chevrolet
9.	David Gilliland	Ford
10.	Matt Kenseth	Ford

• Complete Results | Standings
• Laps | Videos | Photos

The drivers weren't the only ones upset. After the race Harvick radioed for his spotter to apologize to Stewart's spotter for the contact. Harsh words ensued up on the roof of the 160,000-seat facility.

"I told my spotter to go over there and tell him what happened, and the first thing his spotter did was say he was going to whip somebody's ass, and if Tony didn't do it then he was going to do it. Tony and I are big boys, we can handle that, and we don't need somebody who doesn't have anything to do with anything," Harvick said.

"If his spotter wants to have a bad attitude about it, then we can all come down here and we'll handle it. Nobody is going to have a good attitude about getting wrecked. I understand that from Tony's standpoint. But his spotter was out of line, and I didn't appreciate it."

Oh, but there was still more to go. The accident forced a green-white-checkered finish, with Hamlin in front. His fuel low and his car on a banked racetrack, he swerved left and right to try to slosh gas toward the pickup as the field approached the final green flag. When he got there, it looked like he was standing still. Burton, Harvick and Clint Bowyer zoomed by for a 1-2-3 Childress finish, leaving the Gibbs trio stewing over what might have been.

"It was our race to win," said Hamlin, a refrain surely shared by his teammates. "This is so frustrating, to have days like this. I don't know what I have to do to get good luck. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. ... We just can't finish the job. It seems like it always comes down to the end here, and we're always on the wrong end of everything."

For the Gibbs team, it was a familiar sting. This is the same organization that found all kinds of creative ways to lose races last season, while Hendrick Motorsports compiled a closet full of trophies that propelled them toward a 1-2 finish in final championship points. Joe Gibbs' team already has one win this season. But as last year clearly indicated, the early ones that get away hurt even more in the end.

"You're kind of judged off your last race," J.D. Gibbs said. "For us to not be able to capitalize on great cars ... You don't have cars that good every weekend. We've had a great run of some good cars, but unless you capitalize on it, they're kind of wasted. That's the frustrating part. The encouragement is, hey, we can put them together and be fast again next week. But over time, you've got to make sure you maximize that."

Easier said than done at Bristol. She may go into hibernation every once in a while, allow for a few runaway winners, take her time to adjust to the all changes thrust her way in so short a time. But eventually, she wakes up again. And as everyone saw Sunday, the old girl can be a little cranky when she first gets out of bed.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.