Clint Bowyer had a gulp of gas just big enough to win the race. Rick Hendrick had Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon as a pair of Chasers.
In a rain-interrupted race of accumulating tension, Bowyer made it to the finish line 1.198 seconds ahead of Gordon, who knocked Kyle Busch out of the final wild-card spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup in the closing laps of Saturday night's Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
The victory was Bowyer's second of the season, his second at Richmond and the seventh of his career. He and teammate Martin Truex Jr. are the first two Michael Waltrip Racing drivers to make the 12-driver Chase field.
MWR teammate Mark Martin ran third Saturday, followed by Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth, but the big story was Gordon's miracle comeback that put all four Hendrick Motorsports cars in the Chase. Gordon joined Kahne, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in NASCAR's 10-race playoff.
For Busch, it was a failed pit strategy that ...
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September 09, 2012
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