It was easy for race fans to tell when Saturday’s mundane Mr. Goodcents 300 at the Kansas Speedway turned into madness.

But in case anyone missed it, Kevin Harvick will catch you up.

“When the fire trucks were chasing him down the track after he smashed into the wall,” said Harvick, the race’s runner-up, of race dominator Michael Waltrip — who led 140 of the 200 laps but blew a front-right tire with four laps to go and crashed into the frontstretch wall, ending his day — and his chance for a win.

The caution seemed to set up Bobby Hamilton Jr., who was second when Waltrip wiped out.

But on the final-lap restart, Hamilton was turned around in Turn 1, and David Green won the improbable shootout by holding off Harvick on the backstretch.

“You sort of don’t want to have a caution, because more bad stuff can happen after a caution than before the caution,” said Green, who moved back into the Busch Series points lead. “It’s a mixed feeling right there, in this case here we were able to move ahead and get the win.”

And in the process confuse drivers, as well as NASCAR officials.

The race finished under caution when Hamilton crashed. Green drove past Hamilton down low while Greg Biffle tried to take him up high, but instead Biffle slammed into Hamilton and spun him into the wall.

“I didn’t realize the 25 (Hamilton) was out there, and I got into him,” said Biffle, who finished third.

Michael Waltrip (99) battles David Green in the final laps of the Mr. Goodcents 300. Waltrip dominated the race but blew a tire late, allowing Green to win the Busch Series race Saturday at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan.

A disappointed Hamilton seemed dazed when he talked to television cameras after his crash.

“The pace truck ran so dang slow they could have flipped Talladega three times,” quipped Hamilton of his lack of luck on the restart.

NASCAR officials had trouble deciding how drivers finished after the caution flag was thrown on the final lap, causing slight confusion in the new points standings.

Because of a new rule change that disallows racing back to the start line after a caution flag, several drivers changed position on the last lap.

But Green, whose victory was his third of the season and eighth of his career, took a 21-point lead over Scott Riggs and 46-point margin over Brian Vickers.

Riggs came in 13th, while Vickers finished 32nd after a crash took him out of more than 50 laps.

Despite all the late excitement, Saturday was rather dull as the pole-sitting Waltrip was clearly the fastest and led on six different occasions.

But much like his luck in recent races at the Kansas Speedway, Waltrip was again taken out by a blown tire.

David Green, bottom, and his pit crew celebrate his Mr. Goodcents victory.

Last year, Waltrip also won the Busch pole but was taken out of that race with a blown tire. He also didn’t finish The Winston race a year ago when he cut a tire.

“It started shakin’ a lap before that a little bit,” Waltrip said of his tire. “Better judgment told me I should just pull over, but it happened so quickly, I ran it through one more turn.

“I came off four and told them on the radio I had a tire going down, but I didn’t slow down enough, and it blew on the front straightaway.”

Green, who won the Busch Series title in 1994, said the late turn of events was surprising.

“I really thought I conceded for third place there, then Michael had his problem,” he said.

But Green, who two weeks ago crashed at Dover and handed over the points lead to Vickers, said he was glad to get back in the points race.

“The hardest blow we took was at Dover,” Green said. “It’s good to get back out there, and I don’t care where the points fall.”