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Bowyer wins at Talladega

Image: Slingshot: Bowyer passes Burton on the run to the flag

Clint Bowyer won Sunday's Good Sam Club 500 after passing team-mate Jeff Burton on the last lap.

Edwards extends Chase lead as Johnson slips further behind

Clint Bowyer won Sunday's Good Sam Club 500 after passing team-mate Jeff Burton on the last lap at Talladega Superspeedway. Bowyer beat Burton to the finish line by 0.018 seconds to record his first victory of the season and the fifth of his career. The win was also the 100th in the Sprint Cup for team owner Richard Childress, who Bowyer leaves at the end of the season to join Michael Waltrip Racing. On a two-lap run to the finish that followed the ninth caution of the race, Bowyer, who won the same race 12 months ago, pushed Burton to a lead of more than 20 car lengths over the pursuing pack. He then made a slingshot move inside Burton, nosing ahead on the run to the chequered flag. Dave Blaney finished third ahead of Brad Keselowski, who earned the best result of the contenders for this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup. Red Bull Racing team-mates Brian Vickers and Kasey Kahne finished fifth and six, followed by Chase drivers Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin. Michael Waltrip Racing team-mates Michael Waltrip and Martin Truex Jr. completed the top 10. Carl Edwards finished 11th and extended his lead in the Chase to 14 points over second-place Matt Kenseth, who finished 18th. Keselowski, meanwhile, gained three positions to third.

Wreck

A six-car wreck on lap 104 did major damage to the Chase chances of Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch. As the lead pack of cars sped through the tri-oval, a push from Marcos Ambrose turned Richard Petty Motorsports team-mate AJ Allmendinger, triggering a crash that crumpled the hood of Harvick's Chevrolet and knocked in the driver's side of Busch's Toyota. Harvick lost two laps during multiple pit stops to repair his car, while Busch spent 11 laps in the garage before bringing his hobbled car back on the track on lap 118. He was later black-flagged because of an oil leak. Harvick finished 32nd, nine laps down and fell to fifth in the standings, 26 points behind Edwards. Busch finished 33rd, 13 laps down, and is sixth in the Chase standings, 40 points back. Polesitter Mark Martin finished 20th on a disappointing day for Hendrick drivers who had taken four of the top six grid spots in qualifying. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon respectively finished 25th, 26th and 27th, with five-times defending champion Johnson therefore dropping 50 points behind Edwards with four races to run. Two early incidents broke up drafting combinations. On lap 67, Joey Logano spun off turn 4 in close quarters with Trevor Bayne, who was trying to get to pit road. Before Logano could complete another lap, his left front tyre deflated, destroying the left front fender of his Toyota. That left Kyle Busch, who had been drafting with Logano, to pair up with Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Hamlin.
Unlikely prospect
That prospect was considered so unlikely before the race that the team failed to establish a radio link that would allow Busch, Hamlin and their crews to communicate freely. Stewart lost his partner, team-mate Ryan Newman, when he spun off Stewart's bumper in the tri-oval. With heavy front-end damage, Newman lost a lap on pit road as his team repaired the car and two more laps on the racetrack before taking his car to the garage after 97 laps. Stewart then teamed up with Logano, who was driving the No. 20 Home Depot car that carried Stewart to the title in 2002 and 2005. Logano pushed Stewart to the lead on lap 101, three laps before the turn 1 pile-up that ended the brief partnership between Hamlin and Busch and changed the complexion of the race and the Chase.