McMurray moved to the front to as the laps began to wind down. A crash that sent Ryan Newman on a wild ride with five laps to go put the race under red flag conditions while they flipped Newman’s car over and cut part of the roof away so he could get out.
The race was stopped for 12 minutes, 34 seconds and things didn’t calm down any after the race went back to green. Before taking the white flag, Brad Keselowski turned Mark Martin around and the No. 5 Chevrolet became the second car of the day to take a ride on the roof. The last crash collected 13 cars and forced the race to end under caution.
McMurray drove back around to take the white flag and eventually, the checkered flag to get the victory.
“I saw the guys wreck behind me and I didn’t know if you had to take the white in order for, I wasn’t real sure what the rules were, and the 9 went to the outside because he saw the same issue, but I just moved up and kind of tried to block him,” McMurray said. “As soon as I crossed the start-finish line I shut the engine off and pushed the clutch in and coasted around as far as I could. What an exciting day.”
The day wasn’t exciting for many until less than 10 laps to go. Most of the race saw cars running single-file around the top of the racetrack, with occasional short periods of three-wide racing. Prior to the start of the race, NASCAR President Mike Helton warned drivers that officials would not tolerate bump-drafting in the turns. Bump-drafting was an issue officials watched all weekend, in practice on Friday and in the truck series on Saturday before issuing the warning in the driver’s meeting Sunday morning.
“The bump drafting, it happens at the end anyway, but it’s good that the guys are able to get off of you,” McMurray said. “When you’re the guy that’s actually doing the bump drafting, you don’t want to get off because the cars have so much grip and the track has so much grip that you don’t really have to get off of them, so it’s a little different than Daytona.”
Kasey Kahne finished second after avoiding trouble throughout the race.
“The team did a good job with our Budweiser Dodge,” Kahne said. “We had a good handling car, but lost the draft a couple of times. We needed to be in the middle of the draft. (Brian) Vickers was pushing me really hard there before the caution. I was just in the right place at the right time.”
Joey Logano came in third and as the highest finishing Raybestos Rookie of the Year contender.
“It was a good run,” Logano said. “We battled hard all day. These races are interesting, man. You ride around the first part and you’re just really making sure that you don’t wreck. That’s pretty much the main thing and just kind of trying to find friends.”
Fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. led several times throughout the race, something that managed to get the fans on their feet. The Hendrick Motorsports driver finished 11th after getting pushed deeper into the pack before the caution with five laps to go.
Once the caution came out with five laps to go, several drivers decided to pit to put gas in the cars. Once the race went green, some drivers who didn’t pit ran out of gas, which worked out well for points leader Jimmie Johnson, who finished sixth after riding around at the back of the pack all day.
Greg Biffle finished fourth while Jeff Burton ended up fifth. Michael Waltrip finished seventh, while Brad Keselowski, Elliott Sadler, and Bobby Labonte rounded out the top 10. Defending race winner Tony Stewart was caught up in a late wreck and finished 35th, one spot better than teammate Ryan Newman, who took the wildest ride of the day.
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