Burton takes Busch win at Fontana

Burton had been the class of the field for most of the evening but had to work his way up to the front following a decision to pit for tyres on the penultimate caution period of the race, while Busch among others decided to stay on the track and venture on the very slippery conditions at the end of the 150 laps.

The Richard Childress Racing driver Jeff Burton, who is running a limited schedule in the Busch Series, made the most out of his last set of tyres to move up to where he had been for most of the day, clinching his third series' victory of the season.

"You're never sure you can get around Kyle Busch," Burton said. "He's an incredible race car driver. We had much better tyres than he did in the end, and that made my job easier. But by no means did I think it was a gimme."

Busch said he had nothing to fend off a charging Jeff Burton in the closing stages, but not only because he was running on older rubber than him.

The Hendrick driver and his team went the wrong way with adjustments early on and felt like they had just got the car back to where they needed by the end of the race, thus deciding not to alter the balance then with new tyres.

"We just didn't have enough for the 29," Busch said. "They were definitely the class of the field tonight. Maybe if we would have got tyres we could've hung on with him better but I don't know how we would've been able to go through traffic."

Pole sitter Denny Hamlin led early into the race and was running second with 24 laps to go when he spun on his own in turn two. He was able to keep his car away from the wall but still dropped down the order to tenth. However, he showed what he probably had in store to try and win the race in then end, recovering to finish a close third to Busch.

Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer rounded up the top five which was swept by Chevrolets. The No. 9 Dodge of Kasey Kahne was sixth, having also recovered from a spin on lap 107.

Also involved in an incident with only 17 laps remaining was points' leader Carl Edwards, who was part of a multi-car crash that took spring race winner Matt Kenseth out of the race, as well as early race leader Brian Vickers and Stephen Leicht.

AJ Allmendinger's Busch Series debut for Chip Ganassi Racing ended in a huge wreck in which JR Motorsports' driver Brad Keselowski took the worst hit. Allmendinger made contact with JJ Yeley and spun towards the inside of the track where Keselowski was running. At the same time Yeley made contact with the No. 0 car of Eric McClure which was being lapped.

The No. 42 Dodge of the Red Bull driver hit the No. 88 on the right rear and sent him straight into the wall at full speed. The car almost flipped and was hit again by Allmendinger's while in the air, ending up running with its right rear wheel over the SAFER barrier with flames and sparks coming off the left side.

The car finally came to rest near the inside apron and safety crews had to carry Kaselowski out of the car. Although fully conscious, he was visibly in pain apparently from his left foot and after being evaluated at the track's care centre he was airlifted to a local hospital for further checks.

"I thought JJ was going to be pinned behind Eric and we were going to go in the corner fine," said Allmendinger after leaving the track's care centre.

"But actually not, I got clipped in the right rear, spun down. I think I've been OK but I feel bad for getting into Brad because that was nasty. I saw the flames in my window and I hope he's all right. He seemed all right."

The race had to be red flagged for 28 minutes while the track was cleared and officials repaired the SAFER barrier, which needed some welding after the massive impact from Keselowski's car.

Drivers were allowed out of their cars due to the delay and the very high temperatures that made cockpits a sauna for the drivers whilst they sat stationary. It was yet another very hot day at Fontana, which made it a tough day in the office for drivers despite racing at night under lights.

The championship remains mostly unchanged although Kevin Harvick took over second place once again after finishing seventh, with David Reutimann slipping one spot down to third.

Pos  Driver                  Make        Laps
 1.  Jeff Burton             Chevrolet    150
 2.  Kyle Busch              Chevrolet    150
 3.  Denny Hamlin            Chevrolet    150
 4.  Jimmie Johnson          Chevrolet    150
 5.  Clint Bowyer            Chevrolet    150
 6.  Kasey Kahne             Dodge        150
 7.  Kevin Harvick           Chevrolet    150
 8.  Jamie McMurray          Ford         150
 9.  Robby Gordon            Dodge        150
10.  David Ragan             Ford         150
11.  Reed Sorenson           Dodge        150
12.  Scott Wimmer            Chevrolet    150
13.  Marcos Ambrose          Ford         150
14.  Jason Leffler           Toyota       150
15.  David Reutimann         Toyota       150
16.  Mike Wallace            Chevrolet    150
17.  Jason Keller            Ford         150
18.  David Gilliland         Ford         149
19.  Stanton Barrett         Chevrolet    149
20.  Kevin Conway            Chevrolet    149
21.  Bobby Hamilton Jr       Ford         149
22.  Brent Sherman           Chevrolet    149
23.  Kelly Bires             Ford         148
24.  Bobby East              Ford         147
25.  Steve Wallace           Dodge        144
26.  Carl Edwards            Ford         141
27.  Brian Vickers           Toyota       133
28.  Matt Kenseth            Ford         131
29.  Blake Bjorklund         Chevrolet    130
30.  Stephen Leicht          Ford         129
31.  Ryan Newman             Dodge        100
32.  Greg Biffle             Ford          96
33.  Kertus Davis            Chevrolet     94
34.  J.J. Yeley              Chevrolet     69
35.  Brad Keselowski         Chevrolet     66
36.  A.J. Allmendinger       Dodge         66
37.  Eric McClure            Chevrolet     60
38.  Jeff Fuller             Chevrolet     47
39.  Morgan Shepherd         Dodge         18
40.  Brad Teague             Ford          15
41.  Kyle Krisiloff          Ford           3
42.  John Borneman III       Chevrolet      2