Easy as 1, 2 ... 31! Burton, RCR sweep Bristol
By SceneDaily Staff
Monday, March 17, 2008
David Griffin / NASCAR Scene
BRISTOL, Tenn. — This time, Tony Stewart’s nemesis wasn’t Goodyear. Running second with two laps left in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Stewart’s hopes of victory ended with a bump from Kevin Harvick's Chevrolet in Turn 1 that sent the No. 20 Toyota spinning into the outside wall and set up a chaotic green-white-checkered finish that proved to be the perfect tonic for Richard Childress Racing’s Jeff Burton.
Burton, who led only the final two laps, shot by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin down the backstretch on the next-to-last circuit and held on to give RCR its first sweep of the top three positions, with Harvick second and Clint Bowyer third.
"We're not going to stand in here today and say we had the fastest car all day," Burton said. "We had good pit stops. We had good strategy. We did all the little things well. When you do all the little things well, a lot of times the big things take care of themselves."
Running sixth on a restart with only five laps of the scheduled distance remaining, Burton was one of several frontrunners who benefited from a late stop for fresh tires while Stewart, Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. stayed out.
But the winner's biggest break came when Stewart and Harvick tangled just ahead, moving Burton from fourth to second behind Hamlin.
“When that happened, I viewed that as the opportunity,” the South Boston, Va., native said. “That was the door that opened that if we had any shot at all to win, we had to jump through."
Roush Fenway Racing’s Greg Biffle placed fourth, followed by Hendrick Motorsports’ Earnhardt Jr. Hamlin, who crossed the finish line sixth after falling victim to a fuel pickup problem on the final restart, was followed by Gillett Evernham Motorsports’ Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Inc.’s Aric Almirola, Yates Racing’s David Gilliland and Roush Fenway’s Matt Kenseth.
Four-time Cup champ Jeff Gordon finished 11th and was never a factor.
Hamlin, by contrast, was a factor all day. He led three times for 98 laps.
“Our cars just won't pick up fuel,” said a dejected Hamlin, who still posted his best finish of the season. “I could have held those guys off. It cost us the race.”
The only driver more disappointed than Hamlin was his teammate, Stewart, who was seeking his first win of the season after a week of highly publicized rants against Goodyear concerning the manufacturer’s tire choice for last Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Stewart led six times on Sunday for a race-high 267 laps before the bump from Harvick sent him limping home 14th.
“I thought I left him plenty of room, but I don't know,” the two-time Cup champion said. “I was far enough ahead of him that I didn't see where he hit me or when he hit me. I'm sure somehow it was my fault. I'm just sorry I got in his way."
Harvick said he didn’t mean to wreck Stewart, a close friend.
“I just lost it,” the driver of the No. 29 Chevrolet said. “I got up on the inside there and just flat out lost the thing. I was trying to win the race and I hate it.”
A relatively tame event for the first 250 laps, the race took a chaotic turn shortly after the midway point when Dale Earnhardt Inc.’s Paul Menard spun Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dario Franchitti on lap 278.
As the leaders slowed coming to the caution, Ganassi’s Juan Pablo Montoya skirted up the track into leader Hamlin as he scurried to get back on the lead lap. The contact sent Hamlin’s Toyota up the track into Casey Mears, forcing Mears into the outside wall and leaving Hamlin’s car with moderate right-side damage. Hamlin won the race off pit road but returned to his stall under the same caution for repairs.
He restarted 15th, next-to-last among lead lap cars, and promptly began moving back towards the front.
Hamlin’s teammate, points leader Kyle Busch, wasn’t so fortunate. Thirteen laps after Hamlin’s miscue, Busch spun alone off Turn 2 before clipping the inside wall.
A steering failure on Busch’s machine quickly proved to be the malady.
“It just locked up on us and I had no choice,” he said. “It was either go straight into the fence or crank it left and lock it up. Pretty frustrating to have something like that happen while we’re leading, but not much you can do about it.”
Busch, who had inherited the lead during Hamlin's unscheduled pit stop, sustained heavy damage and finished 17th, two laps down. His points lead shrank to 30 over Biffle.
