The victory was Menard's first career Busch Series win.

Though Aric Almirola won the pole for regular driver Hamlin, Hamlin was forced by rule to start at the back of the field. So Menard brought the field to the green flag for some short track night racing.

The No.11 Chevrolet led the first 30 laps before yielding the lead to Clint Bowyer. Kevin Harvick was also moving up from his 18th place on the grid to sixth.

Meanwhile, Hamlin was patiently working his way through the slower cars and was up to 16th place. He entered the top-10 on lap 45 and cracked the top-five on lap 65.

Hamlin was third after the first round of pit stops, but made a quick move past David Stremme and had only Bowyer in front of him through 70 laps. Ten laps later Hamlin took the long way around Bowyer for his first lead of the race.

Bowyer didn't go away however, and after four laps of side-by-side racing, he used the inside groove to re-take the top spot.

Kyle Busch and Scott Wimmer brought out a caution on lap 92 and everyone prepared for their second round of stops. On the stop, Bowyer lost 10 positions, while Hamlin came out fifth because a couple of cars either stayed out or took fuel only.

Mike Wallace led as the field passed the 100-lap mark, but Hamlin's four new tires were working and he was already up to second place. Three laps later the No.20 Chevrolet swept underneath Wallace for the lead.

Hamlin built the lead to 1.867 seconds after just four more laps. Despite teams on different strategies, Hamlin maintained his lead through lap 150.

Bowyer and Leffler traded second and third place positions and the side-by- side racing allowed Hamlin to expand the lead to over 2.4 seconds. But Jason Leffler began to take huge chunks out of his lead and by lap 164 was right on Hamlin's rear bumper.

After five laps of door-to-door action, Leffler slid by Hamlin for the lead on lap 166 and in just a few laps built a margin of more than one second.

Hamlin seemed to be just riding in second place as was Bowyer in third place. They were apparently waiting for the final stop for fuel, tires and adjustments.

Leffler's lead had ballooned to almost three seconds as green flag stops began on lap 204. Hamlin was the first of the leaders to pit, followed by Leffler. But Leffler spun out on his way down pit road and it brought out the caution flag.

Menard inherited the lead after the Leffler error and Hamlin, caught on pit road, was relegated to 19th place. Leffler was still in fifth place on the restart with 40 laps to go. In between Leffler and Menard were J.J. Yeley, Harvick and Bowyer.

The race was interrupted for a Ron Hornaday Jr. spin after only a couple of laps and the race would restart this time with 35 laps remaining.

Menard jumped out quickly after the restart and in three laps held a one- second lead. But another caution flag dragged him back to the pack.

Once again the green flag dropped with 25 laps to go and Menard built a quick working margin. Harvick was making a move on Yeley for second and that allowed Menard to push the lead to almost two seconds with 21 laps to go.

But again, a caution flag, this time for a Johnny Sauter spin dragged Menard back to his competition.

On the next restart, Menard used the lapped car of Busch to get a half-second lead and he stayed that way as they hit the 235-lap mark.

Harvick finally got past Yeley for second, but could he get back up to Menard?

The gap was 1.202 seconds with 11 laps to go, but for what seemed the "millionth" time a caution flag destroyed the flow of the race.

The race restarted with seven laps to go and Harvick right behind Menard. But Erin Crocker wasted more time when she spun into the outside wall and brought out still another caution, tying the record.

Harvick got the better restart with three laps to go, but Menard gathered his Chevrolet and held grimly to the lead. Yeley then slid into Harvick and sent him spinning and the ensuing melee collected a score of others.

It forced a green-white-checker finish with Menard leading Yeley and Hamlin.

When they finally completed two laps under green, nobody had anything for Menard and he took the checkered flag ahead of Hamlin.

Yeley, Leffler and Mike Wallace completed the top-five.

The next race in the series is scheduled for Friday, June 30th at the Daytona International Speedway.

Copyright 2006. Courtesy of SportsNetwork.