The finish put an exclamation point on Waltrip's recent surge that has brought him from 27th in the point standings to 12th in the last 12 weeks while his Dale Earnhardt, Inc., management has said his future there might be in question.

The race displayed the best and the worst of restrictor plate racing, and the race's end was a microcosm of all 160 circuits of the 2.5-mile oval.

A 14-car accident with 26 laps remaining that seemed to consume two-thirds of the field in smoke and flames in Turns 1 and 2 set the stage for two more cautions in the final 10 laps. More