Jeff Gordon led the field at the lap 81 restart. From laps, 81 to 200 were run caution-free. The main competitors during the second half of the race still were Stewart and Earnhardt, Jr., who combined led 101 of the final 120 laps. They were the two strongest cars of the day, as they lead for more than 156 laps (98 by Stewart and 56 by Earnhardt, Jr.). When the leaders pitted at lap 137, Sauter (who was five laps down after damage to his car from the lap 71 crash) tried to pit with them but had evident braking issues. He had to swerve to miss Kurt Busch (who was one lap down after contact with Earnhardt, Jr. earlier in the race punctured a tire) and flew through the pitlane at over 100 mph. Wisely, he did not attempt to stop in his pit box and came around the track to try again. His speeding penalty dropped him further back. During the final round of green-flag pit stops with approximately 30 laps to go, Biffle tried to gain ground on the leaders at the pit entry but was quite evidently faster than the pack of cars running at pit lane speed. He dropped behind them prior to pitting, but his speeding penalty dropped him out of the Top 10 and from contention for the win.