Burton makes it two straight

Late mistake costs Kyle Busch

JIM UTTER, jutter@charlotteobserver.com

Saturday, Mar. 17, 2007

• Atlanta 300 Results

HAMPTON, Ga. – Jeff Burton may not have been the fastest car, but he was fast enough.

Burton held off an army of fast-approaching challengers to win Saturday’s Nicorette 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his second consecutive NASCAR Busch Series victory of the season.

Burton battled a vibration the final four laps and crossed the finish line 1.064 seconds ahead of Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick but his stiffest competition was a little further behind.

Kyle Busch, who led 143 of the 195 laps, had a missing lug nut during a pit stop on Lap 170 and had to pit a second time. He restarted 15th on Lap 174 but couldn’t make it any closer than third.

“These things are never over until their over. We’ve just been on it here, lately,” said Burton, who earned his 24th series victory. “Obviously we had a little bit of luck.

“(Busch) had a problem on pit road and that certainly opened the door for us. On the next-to-last run he drove off and then we started to catch him a little bit. I don’t think based on that last run (that) we’d have been able to beat him.”

Busch was making quick progress through the field after the final restart, but got caught up in a heated battle with Carl Edwards for third place. Busch first passed Edwards, Edwards passed him back and then Busch got back around him again right before the finish.

“It was a frustrating, disappointing day. When you have a car that good and can’t capitalize on it and win, you just want to go home and pretty much cry,” Busch said.

“With about six laps left, Burton was pretty much checked out and I was just hoping to get a good finish, maybe a top three.”

Teams fought tire wear problems most of the day. Because of heavy rain Friday and lack of practice time, NASCAR mandated a competition caution early in the race and allowed teams an extra set of tires.

At one point during Saturday’s race, Burton felt a vibration while running in the top-10 and was forced to pit for new tires under green. Luckily for him, the rest of the lead lap cars did as well shortly thereafter and he didn’t fall out of sequence.

“We had some luck today. Nonetheless (our car) was fast,” Burton said. “That’s the key to racing – get yourself in position and good things can happen.”

Edwards finished fourth and continues to lead the series standings, by 14 points over Harvick. Casey Mears rounded out the top five.

The race was slowed six times by caution for 38 laps. There were 13 lead changes among eight different drivers.

reprint or license