Clint Bowyer was the last driver standing Saturday night.

He knew he didn't come into the Dan Lowry 400 at Richmond International Raceway with the best car, and he knew he didn't finish the race with the best car, either. But he left with the trophy.

"I knew we had a different race car than we qualified, and I knew we would be . . . I thought we were a top-10 car and then we became kind of a top-five car," Bowyer said. "We were fast all night, and once we were up [front], we were able to run a lot better."

It was Bowyer's second career Cup victory, but it had a decidedly different feeling. Last year, he kicked off the Chase with a victory at New Hampshire. This time, he was overshadowed by two other performances.

Hometown favorite Denny Hamlin dominated like no one else has at RIR. The Manchester High grad led 381 of the first 382 laps before a deflating tire left him a sitting duck for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch. Hamlin later was penalized two laps for stopping on the track and finished 24th.

That left Earnhardt charging toward his first victory since the May 2006 race at RIR. That lasted just 15 laps until he and Busch made contact and Earnhardt spun into the outside wall in Turn 3 on Lap 398 of a scheduled 400.

Bowyer took advantage, dipped low and passed Busch prior to when the field was frozen. That put him in front for the green-white-checkered finish, and he held off Busch and Mark Martin over those final two laps.

"He was prepared tonight, and the opportunity was there," said team owner Richard Childress. "If that's what you want to call it, he won by being there.

"I've watched a lot of racing at this place, and watching him be patient for the time he's driven and the way he was able to handle the car and be put in a couple of positions, he's just done a great job."

The victory pushed Bowyer to fourth in the points, up three spots from last week after Talladega. Bowyer's breakout 2007 season has continued into this year, and Saturday night at RIR was another step in that journey.

Crew chief Gil Martin credited Bowyer with not only being in the right place on the track but also taking care of things on pit road.

"[This] was a perfect example," Martin said. "We were having to come around [A.J. Allmendinger] and line up and stop short from [David Ragan]. He did a great job getting into the pit box and coming off pit road; that's little things people don't see during the race and how far he's come.

"You see what he's doing on the racetrack, but just the little things that makes up the time, he's done that."

Bowyer has a chance to keep that growth coming, as NASCAR heads to Darlington this week. That's the site of Bowyer's first career Cup pole last spring and part of a lineup of tracks at which he showed great improvement last year.

He's been able to continue his climb through Cup while not starting any feuds. That helps him avoid the fate of Busch, whose safety became a running joke Saturday night after he spun out NASCAR's most popular driver when he was closing in on his first win in two years.

"I told the cops, I don't know why they were escorting me in here [to the media center]," Bowyer said. "I told them they'd better get on and escort Kyle Busch out of here."