2008 Carquest Auto Parts 300

The 2008 Carquest Auto Parts 300 was a NASCAR Nationwide Series race held at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina on May 24, 2008. The race was the 31st iteration of the event. It was also the 13th race of the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series. Brian Vickers won the pole but it would be Kyle Busch who would dominate the race leading the most laps and ended up winning the race. But the race was most remembered for a post-race fight that occurred in the pit road area between the crew members of Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski that started a rivalry between the two drivers for years to come.

Background
Since 2018, deviating from past NASCAR events at Charlotte, the race will utilize a road course configuration of Charlotte Motor Speedway, promoted and trademarked as the "Roval". The course is 2.28 mi in length and features 17 turns, utilizing the infield road course and portions of the oval track. The race will be contested over a scheduled distance of 109 laps, 400 km.

During July 2018 tests on the road course, concerns were raised over drivers "cheating" the backstretch chicane on the course. The chicanes were modified with additional tire barriers and rumble strips in order to encourage drivers to properly drive through them, and NASCAR will enforce drive-through penalties on drivers who illegally "short-cut" parts of the course. The chicanes will not be used during restarts. In the summer of 2019, the bus stop on the backstretch was changed and deepened, becoming a permanent part of the circuit, compared to the previous year where it was improvised.

If a driver fails to legally make the backstretch bus stop, the driver must skip the frontstretch chicane and make a complete stop by the dotted line on the exit before being allowed to continue. A driver who misses the frontstretch chicane must stop before the exit.

Entry list

 * (R) denotes rookie driver

Qualifying
Brian Vickers won the pole for the race with a time of 30.016 and a speed of 179.904.

* – made the field via owners points.

** – Morgan Shepherd, Brad Baker, Kevin Harvick, and Steve Wallace all had to start at the rear of the field. Shepherd and Baker had unapproved impound adjustments while Harvick and Wallace all had to go to backup cars.

Race
Outside pole sitter David Ragan took the lead from pole sitter Brian Vickers and Ragan would lead the first lap. The first caution would fly on lap 4 of the race when Danny Efland crashed in turn 2. The race would restart on lap 9 of the race. On the restart, Kasey Kahne would take the lead from Ragan. On lap 20, Ragan took the lead back from Kahne. On lap 26, the second caution flew when Morgan Shepherd cut a left rear tire and slowed down which occurred right in front of the leaders in Ragan and Kahne. Jason Leffler won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart on lap 31. On lap 35, Jimmie Johnson took the lead from Leffler. Leffler attempted to take it back from Johnson on the next lap and got Jimmie loose in turns 3 and 4 but they did not know that Sam Hornish Jr., who was behind those two, had a big run on the outside and Hornish took the lead from Leffler and Johnson on lap 36. On lap 44, Jason Leffler would take the lead. On lap 61, Sam Hornish Jr. spun in turn 2 bringing out the third caution of the race. David Ragan won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart on lap 66. Unfortunetly for Hornish, things would go from bad to worse for him as on lap 67, his car got loose off turn 2 and crashed into the outside wall on the backstretch bringing out the 4th caution of the race. The race would restart on lap 72. On lap 76, Kyle Busch would take the lead from Ragan. On lap 80, the 5th caution would fly when Robert Richardson Jr. either got loose or had contact with Bryan Clauson in turn 2 and Richardson would crash into the outside wall. The race would restart on lap 86. On the restart, David Ragan attempted to take the lead from Kyle Busch and led that lap but could not get in front of Busch. On lap 123, the 6th caution would fly when rookie Bryan Clauson crashed in turn 2. Brian Vickers won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart on lap 128. On the restart, another rookie would get knocked out of the race when Chase Miller's engine blew and began to lay oil on the track. The 7th caution would fly 3 laps later for the oil.

Final laps and post-race fight
The race would restart on lap 135. On lap 137, Dale Earnhardt Jr. would take the lead from Brian Vickers. On lap 139, Junior's teammate Brad Keselowski would take the lead from his boss at JR Motorsports. Keselowski was looking for his first Nationwide Series victory in his 47th start. With 41 laps to go on lap 160, the 8th caution would fly when Kasey Kahne and Kelly Bires crashed in turns 3 and 4. Denny Hamlin won the race off of pit road but Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, and Josh Wise did not pit and Busch led the field to the restart with 35 laps to go. With 26 to go, the 9th caution would fly when Jason Leffler crashed in turn 4 after Steve Wallace got loose under him and made contact. The race would restart with 21 laps to go. But on the next lap, the 10th caution would fly for debris. The race restarted with 16 laps to go. Busch continued to dominate the race after staying out during the 8th caution flag. Busch did have challengers behind him ready to pounce on Busch for the lead in Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Soon, Junior fell back and it was Hamlin and Keselowski looking to challenge Busch for the lead. With 6 laps to go, Denny Hamlin attempted to take the lead from his Cup Series teammate but failed to do so. Soon, Hamlin and Keselowski began to fight hard for second place which allowed Busch to pull away and get Dale Earnhardt Jr. back into contending for the win. But they soon closed back in with around 4 to go. But with 3 to go, the 11th caution would fly when Josh Wise blew a right front tire and hit the wall in turn 3. The wreck would set up an attempt of a green-white-checkered finish. But during the caution period, controversy began to ensue. TV cameras showed Keselowski's left front fender appeared to all of a sudden have damage on it. Replays soon showed Keselowski pulling up to Hamlin's right side when Hamlin's car all of a sudden turned right up into Keselowski giving Keselowski the damage. It appeared to be just an accident on first glance but Dale Earnhardt Jr. did not think so. Hamlin made the contact with Keselowski's car right in front of the owner of the 88 car and JR Motorsports and Junior had his driver's back and decided to send a message to Hamlin after the contact. Junior, who was in 4th, passed Keselowski and pulled up behind Hamlin and bumped into the rear of Hamlin's car giving Hamlin a shot in rear and then pulled up beside Hamlin to let him know he did not like what he saw done to his main car. The damage on Keselowski's car would end up not being as fast for Keselowski as it had an effect on the aerodynamics. On the race restart, Hamlin was all over the rear bumper of Busch and was attempting to set up on what it would look to be a photo finish. But on the last lap, the 12th and final caution would fly when Mike Wallace crashed in turn 1. The caution would mean Kyle Busch is the winner and Hamlin would finish in 2nd. The win would be Busch's 4th of the season and the 15th of his Nationwide Series career. Brad Keselowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Brian Vickers rounded out the top 5 while Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton, David Ragan, and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top 10.

After the race was over, a big fight would ensue on pit road. As Hamlin pulled into pit road, members of Keselowski's crew immeadeatly attempted to attack Hamlin over the contact during the caution. But they were held back by NASCAR officials, and members of Hamlin's crew and Jimmie Johnson's crew. Both members of Hamlin and Keselowski got into a bit of a scuffle on pit road with words being exchanged between the two sides. The confrontation lasted at least a minute before things settled down. Hamlin admitted he made contact with Keselowski on purpose saying he did not like the way Keselowski raced him and said Keselowski hit him in the rear during the caution which was why he retaliated by driving right up into him. He also said "I said at the end of that race - I want to do whatever it takes to make that 88's (Keselowski) job the hardest to get around me. I'll block to let the 32 (Busch) win if I have to because of the way he raced me earlier." He also said he was going to talk to Keselowski after the race until Keselowski made contact with Hamlin in which Hamlin also quoted, "you throw a rock, I'm going to throw a concrete block back." Keselowski said “I raced him hard, and that’s what racing is, and he didn’t like us racing him hard. Well, that’s the sport and that’s what I do, I raced him hard and he didn’t think that was cool, so he decided to take my left-front fender off." He also said the damage didn't affect Keselowski at all. Dale Earnhardt Jr. did say he did not appreciate Hamlin tearing up his car for his young driver and said "there was no excuse for Denny to tear up his fender like that." Both drivers were sent to the NASCAR haulers. They also fined three of the JR Motorsports crew members, put Keselowski's crew chief Tony Eury Sr. on probation, and suspended one of his pit crew members for one race. This incident also started a rivalry between Keselowski and Hamlin as the two would get into incidents for years to come. Hamlin also did praise Keselowski's talents during his interview saying Keselowski has enough talent to make it into the Cup Series while also saying that racing the way Keselowski did will hurt you in the future. Keselowski would become a fantastic Cup Series driver as Keselowski has scored 36 career wins including winning the 2012 Cup Series championship as of 2024.