For the second week in a row, Kevin Harvick took Richard Childress Racing's No. 29 Chevrolet to victory lane for his first win at a track in thrilling fashion. Last week he passed Jimmie Johnson in the final corner to win at Auto Club Speedway. Today, he passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. with three laps remaining and pulled away to his sixteenth win and his first short-track triumph since Richmond in September of 2006.
Earnhardt Jr, trying to break a 98-race winless streak, used the bumper on Kyle Busch to take the lead with less than 20 laps remaining but was unable to hold off Harvick's charge. Busch pulled alongside him on the final lap, with Earnhardt winning the drag race for second place. Busch led a race high 151 laps and took the point lead with his third-place result.
Juan Pablo Montoya and Jeff Gordon were fourth and fifth. The top ten was filled out by Matt Kenseth, pole sitter Jamie McMurray, David Ragan, Clint Bowyer, and Mark Martin.
The race's final cauton, for a spin by Regan Smith, changed the complexion of the race for two contenders. Denny Hamlin fell off the lead lap, having pitted just before Smith's incident. Then, Jimmie Johnson was tabbed for speeding and forced to the rear of the field. Johnson recovered for 11th while Hamlin was 12th.
Carl Edwards led his first ever lap at Martinsville, but it was not enough for him to hold the Sprint Cup point lead. For the sixth time in six races this year, the point leader from the previous event failed to hold the top spot. He now sits second, seven points behind Busch.
The race's most spectacular moment came when Martin Truex Jr's suffered a stuck throttle on lap 221. His Toyota rear-ended Kasey Kahne, then speared the wall in turn three. Both drivers were uninjured but Truex's impact damaged the SAFER barrier, forcing NASCAR to red flag the race for 25 minutes while it was repaired.