Burton holds off Hamlin; wins the 'Food City 500'
Jeff Burton raced past Denny Hamlin on a two-lap sprint to the finish Sunday to give Richard Childress Racing a 1-2-3 sweep of the Food City 500, and deny Joe Gibbs Racing a victory after its three drivers dominated the race.
Burton scored his first win at Bristol, the first win of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) season for Chevrolet and led teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer across the finish line in the first podium sweep in RCR history.
``We did the little things right,'' Jeff Burton said. ``That's the sign that this team's matured. That's the sign of a team that's ready to take advantage of situations. I won't lose sleep tonight because somebody says, `We had a faster car.'
``All I know is we've got the trophy.''
In sweeping the podium, RCR stole a race that was dominated by JGR drivers Tony Stewart, Hamlin and Kyle Busch. The trio combined to lead 372 of the 506 laps, but Hamlin's sixth-place finish was the best of the group.
Stewart led a race-high 267 laps -- 10 more than he did in this event last year -- but again fell short of the win. Mechanical problems ruined it for him last season, but it was questionable strategy and contact with Harvick that wrecked his chances this time around.
Stewart was chugging along toward the victory, trying to hold off the hard-charging Harvick and Denny Hamlin, when Brian Vickers crashed to bring out a caution with 11 laps to go. Stewart thought he should pit for tires, but was overruled by crew chief Greg Zipadelli, who wasn't sure there were enough laps left to warrant changing the tires.
So Stewart stayed out -- along with Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- while everyone else on the lead lap headed to the pits.
Tony Stewart jumped out to a huge lead on the restart with five laps to go, but Hamlin quickly chased him down and moved into first. Kevin Harvick, who restarted in fourth with fresh tires, also closed quickly on Stewart's bumper. But as he moved in for the pass, the cars made contact and Stewart went spinning into the wall.
Stewart, who finished 14th, was livid on his radio after the accident but had calmed by the time he climbed from his car and was taking partial responsibility for the contact.
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