Bristol, Tenn. -- Kyle Busch shook the monkey off his back Sunday and won NASCAR's first-ever Car of Tomorrow event in dramatic style.
Busch held off a hard-charging but gentlemanly Jeff Burton, who passed four-time champion Jeff Gordon for second place on the next-to-last lap following a green-white-checkered restart. Burton's teammate Kevin Harvick was fourth behind Gordon and greg Biffle finished fifth. The win for young Busch was his fourth on the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series circuit and the 200th win for his car owner, Hendrick Motorsports. It was also Chevrolet's 600th NASCAR win.
Busch's luck this season has been unbelievably bad as several potential wins evaporated in the latter stages of races with either ill-timed miscues or mechanical failures.
Rounding out the top 10 were Jeff Green, his best finish of the season, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Clint Bowyer, Jamie Mcmurray and Casey Mears.
Denny Hamlin, who led much of the second half of the race, had engine problems just a few laps from the finish that knocked him from contention.
Hamlin's teammate, Tony Stewart, who dominated the first half of the race, had some sort of engine problem that ended his run for the victory.
Busch's win puts him in the record books for winning the first NASCAR "Car of Tomorrow" race. The new, safer car with an adjustable wing and a different style front air dam splitter, was just as competitive on the high banks of Bristol as its predecessors and the race finish was another hair-raising Bristol shootout.
Gordon's third-place finish was truly remarkable. He made numerous pit stops to change the setup of his car after handling problems surfaced early. He worked his way from the back of the field several times and served notice he has his sights set on a fifth championship. He took over the points lead from Mark Martin,who sat this one out as a part of his decision to run a limited schedule this season.
Jeff Gordon's car was fast in qualifying but the four-time champion slowed down after starting from the pole position. He encountered handling problems early on, falling out of the top 10 as Stewart charged to the front. Stewart led most of the laps before Elliott Sadler passed him with 305 laps to go.
Stewart, not to be denied, passed him back a few laps later. It was pretty much a typical Bristol race with caution flags playing a major role. Most of the cautions were prompted by the close-quarter racing that has made bristol one of the most popular tracks on the nascar circuit for fans.
Harvick accidentally tapped Reid Sorenson, who spun into the retaining wall before 10 laps were complete. Sorensen became the first car out of the race.
Dale Jarrett joined him several laps later after being tapped by Matt Kenseth. That accident also ended the day for David Gilliland, who had nowhere to go and got into Jarrett's spinning machine.
Rookie Regan Smith, subbing in the Ginn Racing Chevrolet for veteran Mark Martin, had a rough start at one of the toughest tracks on the schedule. This was Smith's first race in the car Martin had been driving. Martin took his first weekend off since he decided to run an abbreviated schedule for the first time in his career. Smith spun twice in the first half of the race but continued racing.
At the halfway point, Stewart, Biffle, Hamlin, Kahne, Harvick and Burton, as well as Kenseth, McMurray and Bowyer were contending but Stewart was clearly the class of the field.
