Ryan Newman, who in 2002 was the last driver to advance from the preliminary race to win the main event, finished sixth. He was followed by teammate Sam Hornish Jr., who finished second in the Sprint Showdown to make the race.

Earnhardt faded to eighth after leading 14 laps in the third segment and was followed by Mark Martin and Carl Edwards, who was picked by track president and master prognosticator Humpy Wheeler to win the race.

Busch started from the pole led 38 of the first 50 laps and seemed to be in cruise control as he easily won the first 25-lap segment and pulled out to a controlling lead in the second. Out to a lead of almost 2 seconds, his engine began to sputter and Busch radioed the words his Joe Gibbs Racing team didn’t want to hear.

“Motor’s gone, dude,” Busch said. “I dropped a cylinder. You want me to turn it off?”

“Just get us to the intermission, we’ll work on it then,” crew chief Steve Addington replied.

Edwards passed Busch for the lead moments later, and he dropped to third two laps later when Earnhardt moved past him.

“Sorry, dude,” Addington said. “We went for it.”

The team experimented with a new motor that boasted increased horsepower, but team president J.D. Gibbs said before the start it was unknown if the engine would last the entire 100-lap race. Busch had fallen all the way to sixth by the end of the second segment — when he finally was able to go to pit road and give his crew a chance to diagnose the problem during the 10-minute break.

“All right guys, the big thing right here is we’ve got to get on the motor deal,” Busch said as he headed to pit road. “Let’s get the motor done.”

Edwards went on to win the segment, but took no joy in inheriting the victory.

“I hate to see Kyle blow an engine,” Edwards said during the break. “I want to beat him head-to-head tonight.”

Unable to fix the engine, the team told Busch during the break his race was over. He wound up last in the 24-driver field.

In the final segment, teammate Denny Hamlin also had an engine failure while leading. Stewart, the third JGR driver, had to change his engine before the race. His lasted the entire race, and appeared to be strong as he charged late for his fifth-place finish.

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