Busch edges Burton for win at Bristol

Autoracing Betting Lines

03/25/2007 - Bristol, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kyle Busch won Sunday's Food City 500 Nextel Cup race at the famed Bristol Motor Speedway beating Jeff Burton by half a length. The No.5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet crossed the finish line just 0.065 seconds ahead of Burton to win the first race with NASCAR's "Car of Tomorrow."

The victory was Busch's first of the season and fourth of his Nextel Cup career. The victory was the 600th Nextel Cup win for Chevrolet.

Pole winner Jeff Gordon brought the "Car of Tomorrow" to the green flag for its inaugural race. But it was evident early on that Tony Stewart's Chevrolet was the quickest on the track and by lap seven he had gotten around Gordon for the lead.

Gordon continued to slid backwards because he couldn't keep the No.24 Dupont Chevrolet on the bottom of the track.

Stewart was fast and by lap 41 began lapping the slowest cars in the field. At least until Matt Kenseth got into the left-rear of Dale Jarrett on lap 46 sending Jarrett into the outside wall and collecting David Gilliland in the aftermath.

Three cars stayed on the track during the caution flag so Stewart came out fourth, behind J.J. Yeley, Kurt Busch and Kenseth. Stewart, on new tires, was much faster than the three cars in front of him and by lap 72 was back in the lead.

Through 100 of 500 laps, Stewart led 75 of them. The only cars that appeared to be able to stay with Stewart were Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler. They ran 50 more laps and the No.20 Home Depot Chevrolet led 49 of them.

Finally someone came up to challenge Stewart and on lap 195 he got a little loose and the No.19 Dodge of Sadler slid underneath him for the lead. But just five laps later, Stewart grabbed the top spot back from Sadler.

Stewart and Elliott were joined by Greg Biffle as the field crossed the 210- lap mark. Biffle slid around Sadler for second on lap 224. He was putting up laps faster than Stewart and closed the margin to less than half-a-second when Jeremy Mayfield spun to bring out another caution flag.

Biffle lost two of the hard-earned positions on the pit stop and had to restart from fourth place. Sadler was still in second-place after the restart when he radioed that he had a loose left-rear wheel, his second of the race. It forced him to pit for repairs and knocked him four laps down with no chance to win the race.

Stewart methodically and monotonously continued to show the way and on lap 271 clinched the five-point bonus for "most laps led." His lead on Kyle Busch and Biffle was more than four seconds.

A caution flag, when Kasey Kahne spun, erased Stewart's big lead, but left another of the contenders by the wayside.

Then on lap 290 Stewart unexpectedly pulled down onto pit lane...his engine wasn't running and the field was set to go back to green. Kyle Busch inherited the lead while Stewart sat helplessly on pit road with his hood up.

"We had a fuel pump problem, we had to change the cable," said crew chief Greg Zipadelli.

On lap 298 Denny Hamlin edged past Busch for another lead change. The race was "on" now that the dominant car was out of contention.

Hamlin, Busch and Biffle crossed the start/finish line to mark lap 325 with a one-second lead on fourth place Kevin Harvick. And Gordon finally got the car adjusted and he cracked the top-10 on lap 328.

Hamlin, teammate to Stewart at Joe Gibbs Racing, was looking almost as strong and opened up a 1.672-second lead on Biffle with 165 laps remaining. Hamlin lapped Jimmie Johnson on lap 369 leaving just 14 cars on the lead lap. But luck was with Johnson as a debris caution came out seconds later and he received the "free pass" back onto the lead lap.

On the restart, Busch pressured Hamlin and the two quickly pulled away from third-place Biffle. In fact, Harvick slipped past Biffle into third and was the fastest car on the track on lap 395. He also caught Kyle Busch and just before they hit the 400-lap mark he grabbed second from the No.5 Chevy.

Harvick may just have been saving his No.29 RCR Chevrolet because he closed in on Hamlin. They were both making their way through slower traffic and Harvick got right on his rear bumper with 95 laps still remaining. When Hamlin slid high on the track in turn one, Harvick was there to take advantage. On lap 406 Harvick had his first lead of the race.

Another debris caution slowed the race on lap 413 and set up the final run to the checkered flag.

Hamlin's No.11 pit crew won the battle on pit road and he beat Harvick back onto the track. Gordon's crew got him out fourth, just behind Kyle Busch. Everyone had enough fuel to reach the finish line.

Hamlin jumped out on the restart to almost a one-second lead as Harvick had his hands full with Busch. In a couple of laps, Busch slipped around Harvick and went after Hamlin.

With 50 laps to go Hamlin and Busch had built a two-second margin on Harvick and the remainder of the field, but they were about to reach lapped traffic.

Meanwhile, Harvick started to fade, he would not contend. Both Biffle and Gordon passed him with 35 laps to go. Hamlin was keeping Busch about four lengths back as the laps remaining dwindled to just 30. Twenty laps to go and it was still a two-man race between Hamlin and Busch.

However, just in front of Hamlin, Johnson suffered a shredded tire and was headed to pit lane causing a traffic jam. Busch made a run at Hamlin and they split a slower car. Busch was just in front of Hamlin when the caution flag came out.

Five cars stayed out during the caution with Gordon in sixth place and Burton in seventh the first cars with four new tires.

Busch got a great restart, while Hamlin stumbled with nine laps to go. Gordon, with the new tires, charged around the outside and then the inside and when a caution flag came out for a David Ragan crash, he was in second place and ready for the green-white-checker finish.

But on the restart, Gordon spun his tires giving Burton an opening. The No.31 didn't hesitate driving around the outside of Gordon and getting right up to Busch's rear bumper.

Burton had a couple of chances to use the bump Busch out of the way and grab the win, but Burton has always been a clean racer and he wanted to win the right way.

Coming out of the final turn Burton got below Busch and pulled up alongside him, but couldn't beat him to the checkered flag.

"Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton there at the end really gave me a lot of room and I just want to thank them for letting me race," said Busch.

"He has always driven me clean and I'm gonna drive him clean and that's the way we race," said Burton.

Gordon, Harvick and Biffle completed the top-five.

With points leader Mark Martin taking the week off as promised, Gordon's third-place finish puts him at the top of the standings after five Nextel Cup events and for the first time since February 2005. Gordon (791) leads Burton (788) by three points and Johnson (716) by 75 points.

The series resumes next week at another short track - the Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, April 1st.