Bowyer beams, Junior steams

RICHMOND, Va. - Truly, there was no joy in Richmond - or, presumably, Mudville - when Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun out.

Nor was there joy for hometown hero Denny Hamlin, who had utterly dominated the Dan Lowry 400 right up until the loss of air in a tire cost him a race he seemed incapable of losing.

There was, however, joy for Clint Bowyer, who inherited the win as much as if he'd been named heir to a long-lost relative's fortune.

Earnhardt Jr. could've broken a 71-race losing streak - and Hamlin's heart - at Richmond on Saturday night. He inherited the lead from the Virginia native, only to fall into the clutches of Hamlin's teammate, Kyle Busch, who, while trying to pass him, put Earnhardt's Chevy in the wall on lap 398.

Busch, who called it "just good, hard racing," lost the lead to Clint Bowyer and any semblance of affection from a packed crowd of over 106,000.

After the race, Earnhardt was visibly upset but did his best to contain himself.

"We've never had any problems," said Earnhardt, referring to Busch. "It's just what happened. The worst part of it is I've been running good all year, and I was in position to win again ... I ran hard and got wrecked."

When asked by a TV reporter if Busch needed security to leave the track, Earnhardt replied: "We all will."

For Bowyer, it was a gift from the gods. As for Busch, he wound up edging out Mark Martin for second.

"We started deep in the field, worked hard and things worked out," said Bowyer.

With less than 20 laps to go, Hamlin, who had led every lap but one, suffered tire failure - it was going flat - and a night of almost unprecedented dominance came to naught.

Earnhardt, whose previous victory had been on May 6, 2006 in this race, picked up the pieces and outdueled Busch, but that duel had been for second until the race's shocking conclusion.

The hometown boy, Hamlin had been on the verge of a dream weekend, headed to an embarrasingly easy victory in the Dan Lowry 400.

The Chesterfield, Va. (basically a Richmond suburb) native, drove a Toyota that led almost every lap until disaster struck. He started on the pole and took up where he left off in winning the Nationwide Series race on the same track a night earlier.

Competition? It was all behind him. Until Hamlin's last-second collapse - he subsequently hit the wall, kept his car against the wall to bring out a caution and earned a two-lap punishment from NASCAR as a result - that pass had seemed little more than a footnote.

Forty-three drivers ran, but until Hamlin's tire began losing air, only one competed.

Imagine the Boston Red Sox against the Bad News Bears, with, oh, maybe Josh Beckett on the mound matched up against Amanda Whurlitzer.

How many synonyms for dominance are there? Hamlin ruled. He controlled. He commanded. He was predominant, preeminent ... He was a bad man, a la Muhammad Ali.

There were surprises, of course. It was surprising that a sport as competitive as NASCAR could hold a race at a track as competitive as Richmond and have an utter lack of competition.

Surprise No. 1? Jeff Gordon was a lap down after 45 laps as Hamlin set a blistering pace. It's not like everyone else was keeping up. By lap 50, Hamlin led Mark Martin by 2.265 seconds.

Johnny Sauter's skid into the third-turn wall gave the field its first relief from the Hamlin onslaught at lap 65. Juan Pablo Montoya said goodbye to the Chase - for now - when his Dodge smacked the wall exiting turn two on lap 139.

Other than that, it was Hamlin, Hamlin and more Hamlin. It had been a trend dating back to Friday, when he won both the Cup pole and the Nationwide Series race at the track closest to his Chesterfield, Va., home. Near the halfway point, he led Martin by 3.6 seconds, Kyle Busch by 4.3, Earnhardt Jr. by 5.7 and Martin Truex by 7.3.

Hamlin avoided disaster on lap 205 when a crash occurred in front of his Toyota on the back straight. Regan Smith and A.J. Allmendinger tangled, and not only did the tangle nearly entangle Hamlin, who drove through a wall of smoke, but it cost him a 4-plus-second lead.

Lap 220 brought another back-straight crash crunching together the cars of Brian Vickers and Paul Menard. Credit David Gilliland, whose Ford bumped Menard's Chevrolet, with an assist.

What happened next certainly relieved the boredom. What began with contact between the cars of Dave Blaney and Paul Menard ended up being a debacle that collected cars driven by J.J. Yeley, point leader Jeff Burton, David Ragan, Patrick Carpentier, Jimmie Johnson, Sauter, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Regan Smith, Ryan Newman, Montoya and Carl Edwards.

Edwards got off cheap. Carpentier, whose helpless Dodge was pummeled three different times in the melee, didn't.

"It was a pinball ride," said Carpentier.

"Things happen so fast, you don't know where to go," added Kurt Busch. "The ‘10' car (Carpentier) was on the inside spinning around, and he ricocheted back up into the group of us. I had my front brakes all locked up. I had nowhere to go."

None of this led to even the slightest change in Hamlin's utter domination. He led all but one of the first 275 laps. Another brief spot of relief in the waste Hamlin was laying on the field had occurred on lap 261 when Allmendinger - incredibly, the only other driver who had led a lap (207), albeit under caution - tangled with McDowell.