Following a caution for a Brian Vickers wall bounce on Lap 250, many of the leaders pitted, but Gordon stayed out, as did his teammates Earnhardt and Johnson, making it an all Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet top three. Fourth was a surprising Dave Blaney, with Kyle Busch now back up to fifth.

Busch was charging and by Lap 260 was up to second, about two seconds behind Gordon. Nine laps later, Busch had the Toyota back out front, with the Hendrick Chevys second through fourth, respectively, ahead of Blaney.

A caution on Lap 280 sent the field to the pits again. This time, Gordon won the race off pit road ahead of Kyle Busch, Earnhardt, Edwards and David Ragan.

Busch took the lead on the restart as Gordon fell to fourth behind Busch, Earnhardt and Edwards. On Lap 288, Busch banged the wall at the exit of Turn 2, but he held onto the lead. Just one lap later, Truex ran over Hamlin while dicing for seventh place, bringing out caution flag No. 8.

Busch held the top spot in the pits, with Edwards moving to second, ahead of Gordon, Ragan, Earnhardt, Blaney, Truex, Bobby Labonte, Johnson and Kenseth. Once the green flag fell, Busch was off like a shot and with 50 of 367 laps left, Busch led by 1.301 seconds. By lap 330, Busch stretch his lead to 2.310 seconds and was untouchable, as he sailed off to an easy victory.



DODGE CHALLENGER 500 RESULTS

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to


SPEED will televise the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race XXIV and the NASCAR Sprint Showdown live on May 17, as well as provide more than 90 hours of support programming prior to the event. Stay tuned to SPEEDtv.com for frequent updates on the history of the event and all the details about this year’s action.