It was a pretty exciting weekend in Richmond to say the least, and now that it’s over with, I’ve gotta say that I’m rather exhausted.

It all started Thursday night when Kyle Busch won a charity race in support of the Denny Hamlin Foundation, and continued the following night when Virginia-native, Denny Hamlin, took the pole award in Sprint Cup qualifying. Hamlin then went onto pass Kevin Harvick with about ten laps remaining in the Friday Night Nationwide Series race to capture the checkered flag in front of his hometown fans (see my post Hamlin One Step Closer to Hometown Dominance).

On Saturday evening, the Sprint Cup Series put on a grand ol’ show. Hamlin absolutely dominated the race from start to … almost finish. He led 381 of the first 382 laps of the race, but had a tire go down with only 18 laps remaining. Hamlin’s misfortunes nearly turned into Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s fortune, but he got tangled up with the one they call “Wild Thing” and was relegated to a 15th place finish. Instead of a JGR or an HMS car visiting Victory Lane, it was the surprise victor of Clint Bowyer, winning for only the second time in his young Sprint Cup career.

The NBFT bloggers have already put the race results up in a variety of formats:
- Over at www.doyounascar.com, I’ve posted my weekly Rating the Race segment, and in all of my infinant wisdom, have graded this one with an “A”. Be sure to check out the post, though, for the full rundown of notes, highlights, and results.

- The good Reverend Jim has privileged us with a summary of the race as it unfolded (in type delay, of course). Check out his post, Richmond: “Live” on Type Delay and find out what we were all thinking as the race was actually in progress.

- Racedriven has taken the race summary and flipped it around to pose the question upon us, asking us what we consider a good race and if we thought this one falls into that category. Go read Jr., Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin as Clint Bowyer wins the 400 at Richmond and answer his question.