FONTANA, Calif. -- Jeff Burton turned a late pit stop and fresh tires into his third NASCAR Busch Series win this season on Saturday night at California Speedway.
He passed Kyle Busch for the lead just eight laps from the end of the Camping World 300 and pulled away to win by 2.859 seconds -- about 12 car-lengths -- as Busch barely held off pole-winner Denny Hamlin for second place.
"You're never sure you can get around Kyle Busch," Burton said. "He's an incredible race car driver. We had a better car than he did at that point, but by no means did I think it was a gimme."
Burton, knowing he was going to come up about three laps short on gas without a stop, gave up the lead to Busch, who stayed on track when Burton pitted on lap 127 during the fifth of six caution flags.
Burton fell to sixth for the restart on lap 131 of 150 on the two-mile oval. But he quickly began to overtake Busch, whose last tire stop came on lap 96. Burton was up to second when the final caution waved on lap 132 for a four-car crash.
When the green came out for the final time on lap 141, Burton began to pressure Busch. He managed to get his nose ahead to take the lead on lap 143 and the two drove side-by-side for nearly half a lap before Burton's Chevrolet took control.
"I knew I wasn't going to be able to hold him off, but I was kind of surprised I was able to hold him off as long as I did," Busch said.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
Source: ESPN.com
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