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Rating the Race: Richmond - Dan Lowry 400

by Tim Zaegel on May 4th, 2008

Image details: The Dan Lowry 400 served by picapp.com   

Saturday night’s running of the Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400 was one of dominance, heartbreak, surprise, and all-around pure excitement, and the Sprint Cup Series manage to squeeze it all into just 400 laps at Richmond International Raceway. In fact, there hasn’t been any official report published on it, but I’d be willing to bet that at least a handful of fans at Richmond suffered from anxiety attacks, and the rest of them were probably focusing their efforts on tracking down the driver of the no. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing car.

Denny Hamlin started the race from the pole position, set a track record for laps lead, and looked as though he was well on his way to becoming only the fifth driver to win at Richmond from the pole since the track was reconfigured and only the third to ever sweep the weekend series at RIR, but it was Clint Bowyer standing in Victory Lane after the checkered flags waived.

Hamlin started the race off in grand fashion by quickly establishing himself as the class of the field right off the bat en route to leading 381 of the first 382 laps at his hometown track, with the other being led by AJ Allmendinger on lap 207 under caution.

Hamlin held onto the lead until there were only 18 laps left in the race when he felt a tire going down, and he not only gave up the lead, but dropped deep into the field. The grandstands went crazy as the no. 88 of Dale Earnhardt Jr. passed him for the lead with Kyle Busch right next to him. Hamlin finally stopped his car on the track to draw the caution flag with 10 laps to go, but NASCAR threw the rulebook at him and parked him for two laps for intentionally bringing out a caution.

The race restarted, and Earnhardt and Kyle Busch battled for the lead. Earnhardt - who hadn’t won a race in two years - took the high side of the track, while Busch drove around the bottom. The two cars were running virtually neck and neck, and just when Earnhardt Nation thought their hopes were about to come true - the heartbreak kicked in. The two cars just sort of met in the middle of the track, and Busch sent Junior spinning with only 3 laps left to bring out the final caution of the race. The surprise was that as all of this was going on, Clint Bowyer snuck right past both cars to take the lead, and eventually the checkered flags. Kyle Busch would eventually finish 2nd.

Mark Martin started the race in second and ran inside the top-five the entire evening to finish in third. Tony Stewart had a solid day inside the top-ten, and was eventually rewarded with a fourth place effort. Martin Truex Jr. had a pretty quiet evening, but finished fifth. Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, and Kasey Kahne completed the top-ten. Junior went onto finish 15th.

The first real bit of excitement occurred on lap 231 when JJ Yeley got tapped by Dave Blaney and Carl Edwards to set off a huge multi-car accident that involved thirteen drivers to bring out the 6th caution of the evening. Blaney and Edwards escaped the melee, but it forced Yeley down the track into Patrick Carpentier who took a spin around the track, running into several cars. The wreck included the cars of Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, David Gilliland, Juan Pablo Montoya, Johnny Sauter, Regan Smith, Michael McDowell, and Jeff Burton, though Burton was able to escape with minor damage and stay on the lead lap.

With 48 laps remaining, Casey Mears slid up the track and pinched Michael Waltrip, who had just pitted for four tires and gas. The pinch wound up wrecking both cars, and out of frustration, Waltrip just sort of clung to the back of Mears’ car, pushing him down the track. The incident warranted a call from NASCAR ordering Waltrip to park his car for the rest of the night.

Jeff Burton - after salvaging his racecar from the earlier accident - managed an 11th place finish, and continues to be the only driver in the series to successfully complete every lap this season, but surrendered the points lead to Kyle Busch. Burton now trails Busch by 18 points. Dave Blaney replaced JJ Yeley in the 35th points position.

For Bowyer, it is only the second Cup Series victory of his career, and the first since winning in New Hampshire from the pole position last September. He started Saturday’s race from 31st, making him only the eighth driver in series history to win a race at Richmond after starting from outside the top-20. The win moves Bowyer up three spots to fourth overall.

For a transcript of the race as it unfolded, please check out Richmond: “Live” on Type Delay over at Reverend Jim’s Rants ‘n’ Raves.

Grades:
the Race:  94%
the Drama:  98%
Coverage:  91%
Pre-Race:  86%

Overall Grade:  93.4%

Complete Results (from nascar.com):