RICHMOND, Va. - Clint Bowyer won his second career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Saturday night, but that story may be an afterthought.  After a wild last 20 laps, Saturday's Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400 at Richmond International Raceway will be a race that will be talked about for some time to come. 

The night appeared to belong to Denny Hamlin, who dominated the race and led a record 366 laps.  Unfortunately a flat tire with twenty laps to go cost the hometown hero the lead, a chance to win and ultimately ended Hamlin's night with a 25th place finish.

Hamlin's exit set-up a battle for the lead between Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who was looking to end his 71-race winless streak at the track where he scored his last Cup win two years ago.

The duo was racing side-by-side with three laps to go and made contact entering the third turn, with Busch's car sliding up into Earnhardt, Jr.'s.  The impact sent the No. 88 Chevrolet spinning backwards into the wall and not surprisingly, set off a near riot in the grandstands as Earnhardt, Jr. fans voiced their displeasure over the turn of events.

Earnhardt, Jr. sat dejected next to his battered car and although he hadn't seen a replay of the incident gave his side of what happened.

"He’s gonna need security from all of us,” Earnhardt said of Busch. "I haven’t seen the replays, but (crew chief Tony Eury Jr.) said it looked like he got loose underneath us. It’s just disappointing because we’ve been running real good and were in position for a win.”

That led to a green-white-checkered overtime finish with Bowyer, who snuck by the front running duo as they crashed, now in command.  When the green flag flew, Bowyer was able to jump ahead to a two-car advantage and as Busch battled Mark Martin for the runner-up spot, was able to drive his Richard Childress Racing Chevy to his first win of the season.

Bowyer's second career triumph came in his 83rd series start.

Tony Stewart and Martin Truex, Jr. rounded out the top five.  Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne completed the first ten finishers.

A huge accident on lap 230 involving 11 cars brought out the red flag and stopped the race for 22 minutes.

The incident started on the backstretch and entering the third turn and when it ended it included Jeff Burton, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards and others with Patrick Carpentier receiving the brunt of the damage hitting both the inside retaining wall and several other cars.

Another incident involving Michael Waltrip and Casey Mears with 45 laps to go resulted in NASCAR parking Waltrip after he drove into the rear of Mears' car and accelerated after the two made contact with each other and the wall.

The Sprint Cup Series now heads to Darlington Raceway for next Saturday night's Dodge Challenger 500.