Race Report.(Competition)

Byline: Al Pearce

Denny Hamlin was not going to be perfect-not quite. A.J. Allmendinger made sure of that by staying on the track during a caution and leading lap 207 of the Dan Lowry 400 at Richmond International Raceway. As the race, scheduled for 400 laps, lumbered toward its foregone conclusion, Hamlin was poised to lead 399 laps from the pole and win a snoozer.

But it didn't happen, even though Hamlin was especially strong over a weekend that saw him win the Nationwide Series race and claim the Cup pole at his home track. First, he slowed with a cut right front tire 19 laps from a near-certain win. He was beaten when Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch passed him on lap 382. Moments later, Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin took third and fourth as Hamlin faded. A few laps later, after Hamlin created a caution by stopping on the track with his flat tire, second-running Busch and Earnhardt got together in turn three. (The ensuing cleanup meant the race would run 408 laps before a two-lap green-flag "overtime.'') As they hit, Bowyer cut inside and took the lead. He held on for the final 13 laps for his second career win in a Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

"The fastest car does not always win, and that was the case tonight,'' Bowyer said sheepishly. "You've got to be able to be there for the taking, and we were close enough to do that. I think [the Earnhardt-Busch incident] was bound to happen. I was watching it, and Richard [Childress] was on the radio saying, `It's going to happen,' and sure enough, it did. It was meant to be, I guess.''

Busch, second ...