While it was looking good for Chesterfield's Denny Hamlin for most of the night, Clint Bowyer was able to steal the show in the final laps to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400.

Though Hamlin beat a Richmond International Raceway track record tonight by leading 381 laps, a leaking front right tire caused him to drop from the lead with about ten laps to go and eventually get overtaken by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch, Mark Martin and Bowyer.

Earnhardt (No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy) quickly took the lead position but was eventually chased down and inadvertently collided into by Busch (No. 18 Pedigree Toyota) with two laps to go, sending Earnhardt spinning to the wall and toward the back of the pack. Had he kept his lead, this would have been Earnhardt's first win in two years, which is also the two-year anniversary of his last victory at Richmond. Instead, he pulled a 15th place finish.

With the Earnhardt caution putting the race into extra laps, Bowyer (No. 07 BB&T Chevrolet) took off like a shot when the green flag dropped, leaving the battle for second place a drag race between Busch and Martin (No. 8 U.S. Army Chevrolet). With Bowyer in the clear lead, Busch grabbed better track position coming out of turn four and out-muscled Martin to the checkered flag.

Tonight marks Bowyer's first win in 2008 but only his second career win in 83 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.

However, Busch may want to watch his back when leaving the track tonight. Though the replays on television showed that Busch most likely got loose in the corner and slid up the track into Earnhardt causing the wreck accidentally, the 100,000-plus fans in the grandstands, a majority of whom are ardent Dale Jr. fans, didn't have that technological perspective.

"Whether it is fair or not, he is going to need some security," Earnhardt said after the race. "I haven't seen the replay but [they] said it looked like Kyle just got loose underneath me. That happens...I have done that before."

Though there were some words between Busch and a member of Earnhardt's pit crew after the race, Busch agreed that it was just bad luck and hard racing that brought on the late-race accident. But as far as facing the wrath of millions of furious Dale Jr. fans?

"Everyone probably is racing around the racetrack scared to death of wrecking Dale Earnhardt Jr. so why would I be any different?" he said. "That was just a product of good hard racing. I apologize that that happened and I hated that it did...We just didn't give each other enough room getting into turn three."

It probably won't help dampen the angst that Busch's second-place finish tonight just propelled him into the points lead (1495) for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.