Jeff Burton Comes From The Back To Win General Dollar 300

[PressRoom-GFN]

By Deb Williams

CONCORD, N.C. (Oct. 12, 2007) – An engine change that sent Jeff Burton to the rear of the field for Friday's Dollar General 300 didn't prevent the Richard Childress Racing driver from claiming his third NASCAR Busch Series victory at Lowe's Motor Speedway and the 26th of his career.

“Obviously, I'm really happy tonight,” Burton said during his post-race interview in the media center. “We broke an engine yesterday and they didn't just change the engine. They changed the oil tank, oil lines, the whole system and we went out cold turkey. Obviously, everything was good. So I'm real proud of that effort. Any time you start in the back and win the race, it's really rewarding. This, to me, is one of the biggest, here and Darlington, as far as the Busch Series goes, the two biggest races we run; it's a real honor to win here tonight.”

With Burton's victory, Childress' lead in the owner standings increased to 116 points over Joe Gibbs, who fields the No. 20 Rockwell Automation Chevrolet driven by Denny Hamlin. Jack Roush is 180 points behind Childress in third with the No. 60 Ford piloted by driver points leader Carl Edwards.

With four races remaining in the season, Edwards possesses a 638-point advantage over David Reutimann. Kevin Harvick, who is third in the standings, trails Edwards by 753 points and mathematically remains in the running for the 2007 title.

Friday's 200-lap race on the 1.5-mile rack was 90 laps old before Burton cracked the top 10, but once he arrived, he never left. With 70 laps remaining, Burton was running third behind leader Clint Bowyer and Greg Biffle. Suddenly, Bowyer's Chevrolet broke loose exiting turn four and spun. Biffle, who was running high, had nowhere to go and smacked Bowyer. Burton dove onto the frontstretch's grassy apron and plowed through it until the first turn. That evassive move gave him the lead for good with 61 laps remaining.

“We were just far enough behind to be able to miss it and that was by far the closest call we had; had to go through the grass and luckily I didn't hit anything,” said Burton, who averaged 120.267 mph in his Holiday Inn Chevrolet in the race that was slowed by 10 caution flags for 44 laps.

Burton also had another close call near the finish, thanks to Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was competing in his final Busch Series race for Dale Earnhardt Inc. On the restart, Earnhardt Jr. made a bid for the lead, diving under Burton and nearly clipping his left rear.

“I didn't give him a lot of room,” Burton admitted when asked about the incident. “When he rolled up behind me, it was close enough where it pulled the air off the car and my car kind of turned sideways.

“It was amazing how fast the restarts were and he could run wide open all the way through (turns) one and two, and almost wide open through (turns) three and four. I went wide open through one and two and he was still next to me. It was close, but I heard him lift the throttle.”

Earnhardt Jr. said his car wasn't good on the short runs, while Burton's car performed well.

“He [Burton] was so good out front he just took off, about three laps (after a caution) he would shoot out there about 20 car lengths and everybody would run the same speed,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “But three or four laps, he was turning really, really good and that's where he beat everybody.

“That's the first race I ever felt like I knew I was going to win and didn't. Because I just knew we was going to win because the 29 [Burton] was giving up. His car was tightening up pretty bad before that caution, and my car was starting to turn better and better, and he had not even tried to run at the top yet. I got right up to him and I knew if he ran at the top, it would take about two corners for him to figure it out and I would have a chance to get by him.”

Earnhardt Jr. eventually lost second to Kyle Busch and had to settle for third. Rounding out the top five, respectively, were Aric Almirola and Hamlin.

The Busch Series now has a weekend off before heading into its final four races, beginning with Memphis on Oct. 27.

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