NASCAR Race Review - Lowe's

2007 Lowes - Race 31 of 36. Jimmie Johnson looked like the car to beat again, leading 95 laps prior to the caution on lap 208, but he came out 16th after the pit stop. Back in the pack on lap 231 he spun by himself and tapped the wall, dropping further back to 29th place. Clint Bowyer led most of the next 46 green flag laps until Jeff Gordon passed him with 62 laps left.

The lapped car of Juan Montoya had a tire go down six laps later sending him and 7th place runner Scott Riggs hard into the wall. Riggs finished 36th.

The race restarted with 51 to go and Gordon built as much as a 5-second lead over Bowyer. Kyle Busch eventually moved his Kellogg's Chevrolet into second place and cut Gordon's lead to 2.2 seconds with 13 laps remaining, just as Johnny Sauter spun after getting in oil from the Jeff Green machine. The race was red flagged and teams were worried about running out of gas.

Gordon sputtered on the restart with 5 to go, slowing down Busch while Ryan Newman shot his All-Tel Dodge from fourth to first in one lap. Newman had just layed down the fastest lap of the race, but he crashed the next lap and finished 28th after racing all but 50 laps in the top ten.

That set-up a two-lap shootout, but Gordon had no problem holding off Bowyer for his 2nd straight win of the season and 81st of his career. Bowyer had his #07 Jack Daniels car out front for 79 circuits and he spent a race-high 303 of 337 laps in the top ten. Gordon led 71 laps and is now two wins shy of tying Cale Yarborough for fifth on the all-time list. Gordon also snapped a five-race streak of DNFs at Lowe's.

Gordon was in the top ten for all but 42 laps and teammate Kyle Busch, who finished 3rd, was for all but 61 laps in the beginning of the race. Jeff Burton finished 4th, putting two Richard Childress drivers in the top four. Burton was in the top ten for only a third of the race and none of 5th thru 11th place finishers were in the top ten for more than 85 laps.