When they dropped the rag for the start of the Lenox Industrial Tools 300 it didn’t take long for the 1st caution to come out. Ward Burton blew an engine that caused the yellow to drop. Dave Blaney led the field to a green start again with 11 laps in the books.
The Hendrick cars had already started showing their muscles as Jeff Gordon moved to 2nd and Jimmie Johnson taking 8th. The race was 31 laps old as Gordon passed Blaney for the lead. Other battles on the track included Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Reed Sorenson who were fighting for 4th place.
After 46 laps Gordon had started lapping the slower cars. Dale Jr. and Kurt Busch were battling for 2nd as Gordon continued to put distance between them and him self. On lap 53 Dale Jr. came out ahead of Busch to take over the 2nd spot. The pole sitter and previous leader Blaney had fallen back all the way to 15th.
With 64 laps in the top 5 were Gordon, Dale Jr., Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman. At lap 68 green flag pit stops started with pole sitter Blaney making the first stop. That led to the entire field making stops during the next 5 to 10 laps. After they cycled through stops Dale Jr. came out leading with the usual suspects of Gordon, Busch, Johnson and Newman following behind.
Eighty seven laps old the race saw Dale Jr. open up a 2 second lead over Gordon. The 2nd caution came out for the day with 96 laps in the books for debris in the 3rd turn. All 27 lead lap cars hit pit road with no room to spare. Kurt Busch won the race off pit road and led the field to the green with Matt Kenseth showing up in the top 5. Dale Jr. didn’t waste anytime getting by Johnson and Busch to retake the lead.
With 120 laps in the books Dale Jr. had already led 39 laps which was tops for the day so far. A few laps later debris brought out the 3rd caution. Leaders once again were first onto pit road. This time around Jimmie Johnson won the race out of the pits. Johnson led the field to the green and it didn’t take long for Dale Jr. to jump out front. It was short lived for Jr. as Johnson passed him back and was cruising out front.
At lap 137 Hendrick teammate Kyle Busch got past Johnson and held the lead for over 45 laps. Dale Jr. was the only one that finally chased Busch down. Around lap 183 Junior got around Busch and was in command again.
At lap 192 green flag pit stops started with Jeff Gordon starting the parade. After all was done in the pits Dale Jr. was back in the lead with teammate Martin Truex Jr. right behind him. DEI drivers were continuing their hot steak over the past several weeks. With 89 laps to go Truex Jr. got past Dale Jr. and opened up over a second lead over his teammate.
With 254 laps in the book the fifth caution of the day came out for debris. Leaders were in for their final pit stop of the day. By only taking two tires Denny Hamlin came out first and waited to see if the strategy paid off for him. With the green flag dropping Hamlin saw the caution for the 6th and final time for the day come out for David Stremme and Bobby Labonte spinning. The caution was short lived as Hamlin was back under way as the leader. Martin Truex Jr. quickly started to challenge for the lead but he had to keep looking back as Jeff Gordon was all over him.
With 7 laps to go Gordon and Truex Jr. were side by side and fighting tooth and nail. Quickly Gordon got around Truex Jr. and was all over Hamlin. Gordon tried to make a final lap pass but could not. Hamlin came away and took the checkered flag and got Joe Gibbs Racing their first COT victory.
The top five included Gordon, Truex Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson. It was again a strong showing for Hendrick Motorsport in the COT. Next week the Nextel teams head back to Daytona for the annual Pepsi 400. Congratulations to Denny Hamlin and the FedEx team.