Denny Hamlin pits during the Lipton Tea 250 at Richmond International Raceway. (Jerry Markland/Getty Images Photo) » More Photos

But it took only four laps for the yellow to fly again, as Kahne seriously deranged the left side of his Dodge after a driver’s-side hit in the Turn 2 wall. This caution saw Busch the recipient of the Lucky Dog. The order at the Lap 172 restart was Harvick, Edwards, Kenseth, Hamlin and Ragan.

With 50 laps to go, Harvick led Edwards by 1.018 seconds, with Hamlin third, 5.059 seconds in arrears and Ragan and Bliss completing the top five.

Caution No. 6 flew on Lap 229 for Derrike Cope’s spin on the frontstretch. The top two – Harvick and Edwards – stayed out under caution, as did Bliss, who picked up third ahead of Hamlin, Kahne, Kenseth, Busch, Steve Wallace, Ragan, Scott Wimmer and David Stremme,

The track went green on Lap 235, but immediately went yellow again, as rookie Ryan Hackett spun out, setting up another restart, with Harvick leading Edwards, Bliss, Hamlin, Busch, Wallace, Ragan and Wimmer.

The track went green on Lap 240, with Hamlin taking second on the outside on the restart, and the lead on Lap 242.

Rookie Bryan Clauson spun at the exit of Turn 2 to bring out a caution on Lap 248 and set up a green-white-checkered finish. But Hamlin easily held on to win.

LIPTON TEA 250 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

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