TALLADEGA, Ala. – Teamwork meant very little in the closing laps at Talladega Superspeedway.

Unless, of course, you were driving a Ford.

Clint Bowyer bailed on teammate Jeff Burton on the last lap of Sunday’s race, pulling around him when the checkered flag was in sight to pick up his first win of the season and the 100th in the Sprint Cup Series for Richard Childress Racing.

“You hate that it comes down to that; it is what it is,” Bowyer said. “You owe it to your team, to your sponsors to go out and win the race. Unfortunately, it came down to that situation.”

Burton and the RCR bunch understood that’s how the game is played.

The grumbling was far behind the leaders, where Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne ditched Jeff Gordon because Bayne was part of a pact made by Ford drivers to only push fellow Ford drivers in an effort to help Roush Fenway Racing drivers Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth in the championship race.

Gordon was seventh on the final restart and thought Bayne was committed to pushing him over the last two laps. Instead, Bayne backed off, and Gordon, with no help, faded to 27th.

“The Fords made it very clear about what they were doing in working with one another,” Gordon said. “So I didn’t expect him to commit to me on the radio. I expected him to say, ‘Man, I’m sorry, I can’t.’ And when he said, ‘Yeah, I’m pushing you, we’re good,’ I believed him. I think they had a different plan.”

The race at NASCAR’s biggest and fastest track finished roughly 30 minutes after the memorial service for two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon ended in Indianapolis. Wheldon was killed in the IndyCar season finale a week ago at Las Vegas, and NASCAR honored him with decals on all the cars and a moment of silence before the start of the race.

The race heated up in the closing laps.

Drivers jockeyed for position and partners in the new two-car drafting system. Although the race was not marred by “the big one,” there was a series of accidents, and the last, with eight laps remaining, was a hard hit by Regan Smith that required repairs to the SAFER barrier.

It made for a shake-up in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship standings. Harvick and Kyle Busch were both in crashes, and five-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson finished 26th as he and partner Dale Earnhardt Jr. never made their charge to the front.

Edwards, who came into the race up five points over Harvick, finished 11th and saw his lead swell to 14 points over Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth.

Bowyer, the defending race winner, snapped a 34-race losing streak and thanked Burton from Victory Lane.

“We just were really good together. We thought about it, we talked about it a lot before the race and things really did play out just how we planned,” said Bowyer, who is moving to Michael Waltrip Racing at the end of the season.