Newman

RICHMOND, Va. -- With questions about whether he had enough fuel to get to the finish, Ryan Newman was happy to see yellow flags fly.

Until the last one.

Newman grabbed the lead for good with 124 laps to go, dominated a late long run and then held on through three restarts -- the last with four laps to go -- to win Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway.

"The cautions kind of a little bit played to our advantage,'' he said. "We were pretty good there on the restarts and we were decent on long runs, but I think there were a couple of cars that were stronger.''

Newman pulled away each time, but said he could have done without the last caution, caused when Kevin Harvick crashed while running second.

"The last one was really the only time I thought about that. I think it was 12 to go just before Harvick had his deal there,'' Newman said. "I think we had a good shot at pulling away from him and he was going to be a good buffer for the rest of the cars because I think our car was stronger.''

The crash and cleanup set up a four-lap dash to the finish, and Newman won by holding off Jeremy Mayfield by a few car-lengths, making the Chevrolet 400 his seventh career victory and series-high sixth this year.

But he didn't relax until it was over.

"After seeing what happened in the Busch race last night, I wasn't really sure what to expect,'' he said, alluding to Johnny Sauter's victory after he bumped Matt Kenseth in the final turn. "People can be greedy when they get that close to victory.''

Newman's first break came when Robby Gordon crashed with 19 laps left, causing a seven-lap caution that allowed him to conserve fuel.

Newman appeared to be pulling away from Kevin Harvick when the race went back to green with 14 laps to go. But he lost that edge when debris on the track caused the yellow to fly, setting up a nine-lap dash to the finish.

Again Newman was pulling away, but Ricky Rudd, running third, nudged Harvick on the frontstretch, sending him slamming in the wall. That brought out one more yellow and one more chance for Newman to be caught.

On the single-file restart, Newman's Dodge pulled away from that of Jeremy Mayfield and climbed a spot to sixth in the series points race.

Rudd finished third in a Ford, followed by that of Jeff Burton and the Dodge of Rusty Wallace.

Afterward, Rudd and Harvick parked side-by-side on pit road and crew members gathered to try to keep them apart.

The drivers exchanged words and Harvick wound up throwing his head and neck restraint device at Rudd. Both drivers were summoned to the NASCAR hauler, and series vice president Jim Hunter said the "bench-clearing mentality'' was unacceptable and will be penalized.

"We'll definitely have more to say about this Monday,'' Hunter said.

The drivers had tangled on the track when Rudd won this race two years ago, with Rudd later comparing Harvick to a "bull in a china shop.''

"This stuff after the race is kind of ridiculous,'' Rudd said after climbing from his car, claiming that Harvick seemed to be having a problem with his car before the crash and that he tried to avoid him.

"He put on the brakes and I got in the back of him,'' Rudd said.

Harvick, who wound up 16th, didn't see it that way, contending Rudd hit him intentionally.

"If he's going to take a cheap shot at us, he's going to get one back,'' Harvick fumed.

Harvick, who had finished second three weeks in a row, defended teammate Sauter on Friday night after the spinout of Winston Cup leader Kenseth.

This night turned out well for Kenseth, even after some early trouble, because of late trouble for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Harvick. Both had problems while contending for the win.

Kenseth extended his points lead to 418 over Earnhardt and 441 over Harvick with 10 races remaining -- a nearly insurmountable advantage if his consistency continues. It Kenseth's 20th top-10 run in 26 races.

Earnhardt, running third with 46 laps to go, suddenly slid up the track in the second turn, saved the car but immediately went to his pit.

He re-emerged in 23rd place, two laps down, and finished 17th.

For nearly 300 laps, the race looked like it might belong to Jeff Gordon, who led four times for 126 laps and seemed to be the strongest.

But coming out of a caution with 126 laps to go, Gordon told his crew he thought he had a tire going flat and he faded rapidly to ninth. Gordon was hoping for a caution to fix the problem without losing laps, and he got one, but the problem continued after a tire change. He finished 10th.

Less than 100 laps into the race, Kenseth spun in the fourth turn, sparking a series of cautions that slowed the first half for 49 laps.

The race went back to green five laps later, but lasted just over four laps before a seven-car pileup on the backstretch. The accident took out none of the leaders, but took 18 laps of yellow to clean up.

Burton apologized to Robby Gordon for ruining a great comeback.

Gordon, who caused the first caution when he crashed on the 24th lap, rallied from three laps down and was running fourth when the front of Burton's car clipped the rear of Gordon's entering the third turn in the late going.

"I got into him,'' Burton said. "It was 100 percent my fault.''

"He did nothing wrong. I got in there, got loose, got into him and I wrecked him. He ought to be mad. I don't blame him for being mad. I didn't mean it.''