Kevin Harvick, driver of the #29 Bell Helicopter Chevrolet, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway on April 27, 2013
Photo – Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

The whole race changed after the eleventh and last caution came out in Saturday night’s Toyota Owners 400, as most of the drivers pitted while a few stayed out. When the green flag fell for the restart, craziness ensued and Kevin Harvick came out of nowhere to take the lead with two laps to go. That pass for the lead left him in victory lane after a race that could resulted in at least ten different winners. The ‘Closer’ did it again by doing what he does best and taking the victory after taking the lead late in the race. Carnage was the name of the game leading up to the last restart, but that wild ending will forever be the legacy of this race.

For the first time in three races, the pole sitter didn’t win the race. Matt Kenseth would have loved to continue that streak and for the beginning of the night, it looked as though it was possible. After a lap 109 caution for Marcos Ambrose, Clint Bowyer was off pit road first to take the lead from Kenseth.

Trouble occurred for the champion, Brad Keselowski, on lap 158 when he hit the turn two wall. He later recovered, but would again falter at the end of the race.

Kenseth regained the lead on lap 219, but on lap 254, the Richmond dominator, Kyle Busch, took his first lead of the night. The lead exchanged hands between the Busch brothers after the sixth yellow-flag and now it was Kurt Busch parading the field in the lead.

Kyle Busch’s night took a sudden down-turn once the race entered the last 100-lap stage. First, Busch was originally tabbed with a commitment line penalty when he was pitting under the seventh caution. NASCAR would recall that penalty before the restart, but Busch’s night only got worse from that point, as the eighth caution included Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, and Kyle Busch.

Stewart got loose going into turn one and slid up the track into Johnson and the two of them spun out. When Johnson spun down the track, Busch had no room to avoid colliding into him, causing heavy front-end damage for Busch. After repairs, Busch was back on the track, but his chances of winning were officially gone.

Following the wreck, a new leader emerged in Juan Pablo Montoya.

A few laps later, another wreck occurred and this time it involved Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin, and Brian Vickers. Martin came down on Kahne off turn two, after Kahne made a risky attempt to pass Martin. That led to contact between the two drivers and both spun down the backstretch. Brian Vickers ran into a spinning Martin causing even more damage to Martin’s car. Once the cars came to a rest, both had a ton of damage.

Following the restart, a battle for second-place sprang up between Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch as the two were battling for position heading into turn three. Unable to clear Busch, Truex Jr was tapped and spun, bringing out the tenth yellow-flag of the night.

With six laps to go and by all appearances, Juan Pablo Montoya had the race locked up as the leaders crossed the line. At this point, it seemed Harvick would run out of time and the post-race headline would be about a snapped winless streak by Montoya. That all changed when the caution flew for Brian Vickers who had hit the wall with those same six laps remaining. The next shock came when most of the leaders pitted, with Montoya seemingly giving up his lead by turning down pit road.

Once the pit stops were complete, a new group of drivers were up front with some drivers opting to not pit during this caution. On the restart it was Jeff Burton, then Jamie McMurray, A.J Allmendinger, Carl Edwards, and Tony Stewart at the front. Montoya and Harvick slipped outside the top-five in a race that looked as though they would finish first and second at the end.

Of all drivers, known as the ‘closer,’ fans should have anticipated seeing this driver climb back to the front after losing spots under the caution. Harvick, with fresh tires managed to sneak his way up to second, after a fanned-out restart left the drivers who didn’t pit, with old tires, struggling to stay up front. Harvick then passed his teammate, Jeff Burton, for the lead with two laps remaining and the ‘Closer’ did it again.

Harvick took advantage of this restart to get back to the front of the pack and close the race by leading the last two laps and taking the checkered-flag.

A shaky start to the season left Harvick critics asking whether he would be able to do anything this year.  Harvick’s scheduled move to SHR next year, basically left his team as lame-ducks for the season. With this win, Harvick silenced those critics and showed that his team will still make the most of this season. His nickname ‘the Closer’ definitely applies to his late race move Saturday night at Richmond and his ability to ‘close’ the deal brought him to victory lane.

A classic short-track feud sprang up after this race between Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart, who exchanged words over an on-track incident when Busch bumped Stewart out of the groove on a late restart. The argument will likely lose its steam once Talladega arrives next weekend and if it doesn’t, something big could happen in Alabama.

Superspeedway racing is returning next Sunday when the Cup Series rolls into Talladega. Anything can happen at Talladega and fans expect, just about everything. With several exciting races this season, fans can hardly wait until Talladega where the term ‘exciting’ is raised to a whole new level.

Results via ESPN.com