Sun Mar 16 17:44:50 2008

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Burton leads RCR sweep at Bristol

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Bristol, TN (Sports Network) - Jeff Burton was sitting in second place when Denny Hamlin suddenly slowed and Burton took advantage to capture Sunday's Food City 500 at the famed Bristol Motor Speedway. The No.31 Richard Childress Racing driver crossed the finish line 0.588 seconds ahead of teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer.

"That's pretty cool," said Richard Childress noting the first-ever sweep by his team.

The victory was Burton's first of the season and 20th of his Sprint Cup career.

"We weren't the best car all day, but we kept ourselves in position," said Burton.

Greg Biffle and Dale Earnhardt Jr. completed the top-five.

Other drivers of note and their finish positions: Kasey Kahne (7th), Matt Kenseth (10th), Jeff Gordon (11th), Kurt Busch (12th), Tony Stewart (14th), Kyle Busch (17th) and Jimmie Johnson (18th).

After rain cancelled qualifying, 2007 Sprint Cup Series champion Johnson brought the field to the green flag for 500 laps of short track racing. But Bristol has never been a great place for the No.48 Chevrolet and Johnson.

Johnson led the first 14 laps before Bowyer slid underneath him for the lead. The 43 drivers were showing some patience and early on we saw a long green flag run (for Bristol) which spread the field over the entire track.

Bowyer began lapping cars by lap 24 as he built a one-second lead on Johnson and Gordon. Two cars moving up quickly were Stewart and Kyle Busch.

Stewart passed Gordon for third on lap 45 and Kyle Busch, who started 21st, was ready to crack the top-10 by lap 48. A caution flag on lap 50 slowed the field temporarily.

After the stop, it was still Bowyer, Johnson and Stewart. Within 10 laps of the restart, Stewart had gotten around Johnson and was closing on Bowyer. With slow traffic everywhere, Stewart caught Bowyer, but didn't have any room to make a pass. There were just 32 cars on the lead lap when caution flag No.3 slowed the field.

Bowyer's crew made no changes for the second time as the driver was happy with his Chevrolet. Traffic on pit lane slowed the No.07's exit and he came out sixth. Waltrip was the new leader, he didn't pit, with Stewart, Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Hamlin between Bowyer and the leader.

The top-five cars, led by Stewart, pretty much stayed in line as the field approached the 190-lap mark. Behind them Busch and Carl Edwards were joining the fray.

On lap 191 Dario Franchitti and Jamie McMurray get together and block the track. Collecting some damage were Ken Schrader, Paul Menard, Ryan Newman, Bobby Labonte and Casey Mears.

Everyone pitted for fuel and tires with Stewart winning the race off pit road. Hamlin, Johnson and Bowyer followed him to the restart line. Stewart didn't get a good restart, climbed the race track and Hamlin, Johnson and Bowyer all slipped underneath him.

The pace set by the leaders had left just 20 cars on the lead lap through 200 laps. Stewart slowly worked his way back to Hamlin's bumper and the JGR teammates were one-two at the mid-point of the race. Harvick, Bowyer and Jeff Burton completed the top-five.

Hamlin, Stewart and Harvick were lapping still more drivers, putting J.J. Yeley, David Reutimann, Kasey Kahne and Casey Mears down a lap.

Harvick got around Stewart for second, but he was more than one second behind Hamlin when Paul Menard knocked Franchitti into the outside wall. It was a good time for a caution as many cars were struggling with grip on the almost 100-lap old tires.

Kyle Busch won the race off pit road gaining four positions in the pits, thanks to his No.18 M&Ms team. Hamlin suffered damage in the incident from Juan Pablo Montoya and made a second pit stop coming out 16th - last on the lead lap.

On lap 291 the points and race leader, Busch, suddenly spun, hitting the inside wall. "The steering stuck," he yelled to his pit crew over the radio.

His Toyota suffered heavy rear end damage. Stewart inherited the lead with Burton, Harvick, Johnson and Bowyer behind him and 200 laps remaining to run.

Harvick slid past his teammate Burton for second place and took up the chase for Stewart. He caught him on lap 344 and passed him on the next lap, his first time leading of the day. Stewart re-took the lead on lap 350. Hamlin was on the move having come back from earlier problems to eighth place with 140 laps to go.

Johnson spun on lap 375, dropping Johnson from third place to sixth place.

Stewart again won the race off pit road, possibly the final one of the day. Behind him were Harvick, Burton, Johnson, Biffle and Bowyer. Harvick again got around Stewart as the field crossed the 400-lap mark. The two leaders had about a one-second gap on Burton and Bowyer who were climbing the charts.

Using the top of the track, Stewart powered around the outside of Harvick on lap 414. Meanwhile, Hamlin was still on the move, passing Bowyer for fourth with 76 laps remaining. He was one mile-per-hour faster than the leaders if he could just get near them. So was Dale Earnhardt Jr. who suddenly awoke and was working his way through the top-10.

Hamlin got third place from Burton with still 60 laps of racing to go. Harvick was only about eight lengths ahead of him as he continued to post fast laps. At the same time "Junior" caught Bowyer to crack the top-five.

Fifty laps to go and it was Stewart, Harvick, Hamlin, Burton and Earnhardt Jr.

Stewart and Harvick were half-a-second apart with Hamlin just over one second behind as they started to reach lapped traffic. Harvick would close as they approached a corner, but Stewart was quicker off to maintain the lead.

Then with 11 laps to go the caution flag for a Brian Vickers crash slowed the race and setup a shootout for the win. Stewart, Hamlin and Earnhardt Jr. stayed out, while Harvick, Biffle, Burton and Bowyer came in for tires.

Stewart got a fantastic jump, but then slowed and Hamlin flew around the outside for the lead. Harvick got around "Junior" for third place and was even with Stewart with two laps to go. Harvick and Stewart collided and the No.20 spun to bring out a caution flag. Just before the flag came out, Burton slid underneath both of them and was in second place.

The race would be settled with a green-white-checker finish.

Hamlin would get off to a good start, but suddenly slowed and Burton flew past him as Hamlin pulled down low. Harvick and Bowyer followed him around and the trio of RCR took the checkered flag one-two-three.

"This team won this race today," said Burton. "Pit stops and a great call there at the end, I was just lucky to be driving it."

"We had a fuel pickup problem," said Hamlin after the race.

In his 668th and final regular season race, Dale Jarrett finished 37th.

After a week off, the series returns to the track at the Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, March 30th.