After 356 laps of 400 Dale Earnhardt Jr had led only 3 laps. Kevin Harvick had been the man to beat all night long, but in the end that's just what Junior did. Earnhardt never relinquished the lead over the final 44 laps.

The race had been uneventful for Earnhardt up to that point. He had stayed near the front, but was never a serious threat to Harvick until the final pit stop.

“For 80 percent of that race, Kevin Harvick had the best car,” Earnhardt said.

“I made a charge on him, but I sort of conceded the win to him and was just going to race for second.”

Earnhardt was challenged only once by rookie and Virginia native Denny Hamlin who considers Richmond his home track. Hamlin was able to pull alongside Earnhardt with 6 to go, but he couldn't complete the pass.

"I didn't want to risk cutting a tire or messing him up," said Hamlin. "The last thing I wanted to do is wreck Dale Jr. I have a decent fan base now. I don't want to kill it."

Dale Jr praised his good friend Hamlin after the race. "A little part of me wanted to see him get the win," Earnhardt said. "He's a great driver and he's going to win a lot of races."

The win broke a 27 race winless streak for Earnhardt, and marked his first win with Tony Eury Jr as his crew chief.

The race consisted of 400 laps on a .750 mile track. Official time of the race was 3 hours, 5 minutes, 27 seconds, for an average speed of 97.061 MPH.

The pole was won by Greg Biffle at a speed of 127.395 MPH, but that was slowed during the race by 11 cautions for a total of 61 laps.

Dale Jr's official margin of victory over 2nd place finishing Denny Hamlin was .572 seconds.

He won $239,166 for the first place finish.