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Burton savors 'unbelievably good' Busch race

June 4, 2006 2:04 am

By JIM McCONNELL

DOVER, Del.--When rain washed out Busch Series qualifying yesterday morning, Jeff Burton was left with a 36th-place starting position at a track where it's difficult to win from the rear of the field.

Burton overcame the disadvantage by steadily working his way through traffic. But with 25 laps remaining in the Stonebridge Racing.com 200, it was questionable whether the South Boston native would ever be able to pass Kurt Busch.

Running second, Burton pulled his No. 29 Chevrolet alongside Busch's Dodge six times coming off Turn 2 at Dover International Speedway. Busch refused to yield, however, and had just enough speed to keep Burton behind him.

Finally, Burton slipped past Busch with 18 laps remaining, then held a charging Carl Edwards at bay long enough to secure his 22nd career Busch victory.

Kurt Busch finished third, followed by Clint Bowyer and Ron Hornaday Jr.

"The race at the end was a lot of fun. It doesn't get much better than that," said Burton, who snapped a four-year Busch winless streak earlier this season at Atlanta.

"[The car] was way loose and Kurt [Busch] came flying up there on the outside. I just had to wait and wait until it got tightened up for me. I'm glad it finally did."

Burton posted the biggest come-from-behind victory ever in a Busch race at Dover. Scott Wimmer had held the record after charging from 26th place to win in 2002.

More remarkably, Burton managed to get it done on old tires.

During a caution on Lap 151, most lead-lap cars pitted for new tires. Edwards was one of them; Burton wasn't.

But while Edwards was able to pass Busch for second place without much trouble, his fresher tires made no difference in his pursuit of a streaking Burton.

"The car was fast all day," Burton said. "On long runs, we were unbelievably good."

For the second time this week, budding superstar Kyle Busch expressed remorse for his latest on-track transgression.

It came seven days too late to save him from a $50,000 fine. But Busch was more concerned about the 25 Nextel Cup points he lost after tossing his HANS device at Casey Mears' car late in last Sunday's Coca-Cola 600.

"That put us back to 10th in points, so we have some ground to make up," Busch said. "We have lost over 200 points or so within the past four weeks, so there is definitely some ground where we need to improve on in order to keep ourselves on the Chase."

Busch and Mears also tangled earlier this season at Phoenix, but Mears insisted he harbored no ill will toward Busch.

"It's funny. If you get into it with a guy a couple of times people think there might be an issue. There's really no issue at all. I just happened to be the guy around him at the time, and last weekend he just happened to be around me," Mears added. "I don't agree with what he did, but at the same time it doesn't affect me."

Jimmie Johnson's near-accident during Friday's qualifying left the Nextel Cup points leader in an unprecedented quandary.

Johnson's lone lap was good for 42nd place in the 43-car field. Since Dover has only 42 pit stalls, he will have to share a spot with Scott Wimmer.

It's the first time Johnson has qualified lower than 25th at Dover, and he's not thrilled at the thought of a time-share arrangement on an already-tight pit road.

"It's tough for me to believe that in today's world of racing we can't modify a pit road and can't adjust it to where all 43 cars have their own pit stall," Johnson said. "It just doesn't give everybody a fair shot."

It won't be a problem at future Dover races. Track officials recently announced a five-year improvement project, which will begin after today's event and includes an expansion of the current pit-road setup.

To reach JIM McCONNELL: 540/374-5444
Email: jmcconnell@freelancestar.com