2008 Crown Royal Presents The Dan Lowry 400

Race details
Race 10 of 36 in the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season
2008 Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400 program cover
Date	May 3, 2008 (2008-May-03)
Official name	Crown Royal Presents The Dan Lowry 400
Location	Richmond International Raceway, Richmond, Virginia
Course	Permanent racing facility 0.75 mi (1.207 km)
Distance	410 laps, 307.5 mi (494.873 km)
Scheduled Distance	400 laps, 300 mi (482.803 km)
Weather	Temperatures reaching as low as 57 °F (14 °C); wind speeds up to 18.1 miles per hour (29.1 km/h)[1]
Average speed	95.786 miles per hour (154.153 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing
Time	21.395
Most laps led
Driver	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing
Laps	381
Winner
No. 07	Clint Bowyer	Richard Childress Racing
Television in the United States
Network	Fox Broadcasting Company
Announcers	Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds

The 2008 Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400 was the tenth stock car race of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The event was held on May 3, 2008, before a crowd of 112,000, at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Virginia. Originally scheduled for 400 laps, Clint Bowyer won the race after a late caution and subsequent green–white–checker finish extended the race to 410 laps.

Summary

The race was telecast on Fox starting at 7:45 pm US EDT, with radio coverage on Sirius Satellite Radio and MRN beginning at 7:30 pm US EDT. The race is named for Columbiana, Ohio resident Dan Lowry, who was the winner of an essay contest sponsored by race sponsor Crown Royal whisky. Clint Bowyer won the race.

Pre-race news

• Last week at Talladega, Ken Schrader filled in on the #70 Haas CNC Racing car. Schrader was the interim substitute for Dario Franchitti's #40 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge, but failed to qualify.
• Johnny Sauter would return again to Haas and pilot their #70 ride for this race.

Race

The action came with 48 laps left. While Denny Hamlin who dominated the race, led on a fuel crisis, the caution flew for Casey Mears' crash. The crash involved Michael Waltrip in his self-owned #55 Toyota. The replays showed that Mears accidentally forced Waltrip into scraping across the wall. Then instantly afterwards Michael Waltrip pushed Mears around. These hits on Mears' rear caused him to eventually hit the wall nearly head-on. For the shove Waltrip was parked by NASCAR.

Denny Hamlin led 381 laps until a cut tire and a pit road penalty ended his day. On lap 398, Kyle Busch, spun Dale Earnhardt Jr. into the wall, triggering an enormous amount of controversy over the matter and intense boos from the crowd, as Earnhardt was extremely popular due to his family relations with his famous father Dale Sr. Although many fans felt that Busch intentionally caused the accident, years later on Dirty Mo Radio Earnhardt would later address the incident and state that Busch did not intentionally cause the wreck.^[2] He would say that "Even in the moment, I knew that it wasn't [Busch] turning me on purpose." Earnhardt had said that Busch had simply had wanted to get a better run off of the corner, but had gotten loose and spun him. At the next Richmond race, Earnhardt would seem to get payback on Busch, as on lap 212 Earnhardt spun Busch heading into Turn 1.

However, Clint Bowyer surged in front of Busch before the caution flag was thrown. Bowyer was able to hold off Busch and Mark Martin to score his second career cup win, despite leading only two laps. His win was the last one when numbered 07, and his win brought Chevrolet to having the most NASCAR wins in history.

Results