Bowyer ends drought, wins STP 500

Clint Bowyer held off Kyle Busch to end his NASCAR drought and win the STP 500 at Martinsville on Monday.

Published : Mar 27, 2018 04:54 IST

Heavy snowfall at Martinsville Speedway forced NASCAR to postpone the STP 500 until Monday, but the delay did not affect Clint Bowyer.

Bowyer, who led a combined 36 laps the last three seasons, took the lead away from stage-two winner Ryan Blaney on lap 285 and led the final 215 laps for his first win since the 2012 Bank of America 500 — 190 races ago. 

The only caution flag of the afternoon at the half-mile Virginia track flew on lap 384 when Austin Dillon got into the rear of Jamie McMurray, sending the number one car into the wall.

The pause in the race allowed Bowyer to fill his tank with fuel after a mistake on pit road left him an estimated three gallons short. 

Kyle Busch finished second, followed by Blaney, pole-sitter Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick. 

Last time the series was at the 'Paperclip', Denny Hamlin wrecked Chase Elliott from the lead with just three laps remaining. 

Elliott slammed Hamlin into the turn three wall on the cool-down lap, and the two exchanged words after exiting their cars.

This time around there was no retaliation from Elliott, who caught fire late en route to a ninth-place finish. 

After a pit stop with 115 laps to go, Hamlin had to make a second stop to fix damage causing his number 11 car to overheat. The stage-one winner was able to work his way back into the top 15 for a 12th-place finish. 

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