Burton takes dramatic Busch victory

A record twelve cautions came out during the race for nearly as many crashes arising from the very low grip due to the track changes that led Goodyear to bring a harder tyre for the weekend.

However, that didn't take anything away from Burton, who got his 23rd win in the Busch Series after overtaking Kyle Busch on the outside of the last turn of the race.

"For whatever reason our car liked hot tyres, it ran at its best on hot tyres," Burton said. "In the last two laps we started making a lot of ground on him going through (Turns) 3 and 4 and I knew there was only one chance and that was trying to go on the outside.

"We both wanted to run the outside and I drove there all deeper than I had been and [the car] stuck. To his credit he didn't give me an inch more than I needed but he gave me what was mine."

A disapointed Kyle Busch, who led the most laps during the race, lost a big chance to win at his home track.

"You just go up and congratulate him," Busch said. "He won the race. I just wanted him to know that he drove an awesome race himself. We're all competitors in our own rights."

Burton took some pressure off Goodyear, claiming the tyre manufacturer did what they had to do to avoid tyres blowing up, despite that making the cars a lot trickier to drive.

"They had to come here with a tyre that lasted, they had to come here with a tyre that could run the whole race without having a problem and I think they accomplished that," he said.

"I'm proud of them. I know a lot of people have complained about the tyre and it is very tricky and it is easy to get yourself in trouble but at the end of the day, there's no choice."

From the start of the race it became clear that the track conditions were probably the toughest so far during the weekend. Kevin Harvick was able to pull away from the pack from pole position initially, but the hot temperatures at noon made cars a handful for many drivers and early wrecks proved that.

Brett Rowe brought out the first caution after crashing heavily out of Turn 4, while a few laps later Clint Bowyer, Fontana winner Matt Kenseth and Casey Mears crashed in the same corner. It was the end of the day for the all three drivers.

Australian Marcos Ambrose brought out the third caution of the day after spinning at the same spot. However he was able to save the car from crashing into the wall, something Brad Coleman was unable to do later.

Greg Biffle fell also victim of the conditions and crashed after losing grip at the rear of his car. "It's like being on black ice out there," he told television station ESPN.

With 50 laps to go the race saw the fastest runners of the afternoon emerge ahead, with Kyle Busch leading the pack and Burton looking like the only man capable of keeping up with his pace.

Then with ten laps remaining Kasey Kahne went loose out of Turn 2, while behind him Reed Sorenson crashed head-on into the wall and Jamie McMurray also got involved in the incident.

"Bad move. It's just stupid to crash so late into the race," Kahne said about his accident. "There's a tonne of grip on the track but no grip on the tyres. It's like you (have to) try not to crash every lap and it's going to be the same tomorrow."

The incident forced the race to be red-flagged as officials took time to clean all the debris from the wreck.

With seven to go the green flag waved for the final time and Kyle Busch jumped ahead of Burton on the back-stretch. Behind them Tony Stewart grabbed third from Kurt Busch and tried to go in pursuit of Burton.

However the Richard Childress driver saved his best for last. In the final lap he drove on the outside of the Hendrick driver on the nerve-wracking Turn 4 and just edged him across the start-finish line by 0.101 seconds as Busch spun out of control.

Stewart came third driving Kevin Harvick's team entry ahead of Penske's Kurt Busch and an impressive David Stremme in the No. 22 SuperCuts Dodge.

Carl Edwards finished sixth and kept the points lead while Mexico winner Juan Pablo Montoya had a very disapointing afternoon, complaining of an undriveable car. He had to pit under green early on for a flat tyre and fell two laps down on the leaders.

The best placed rookie was Ambrose, who finished tenth after recovering from his early spin.

A total of seven of the Nextel Cup drivers who took part of the race crashed out of it, showing just how challenging the conditions were.

Sam's Town 300 Results:

Pos  Driver              Make      Laps
 1.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  200
 2.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet  200
 3.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  200
 4.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      200
 5.  David Stremme       Dodge      200
 6.  Carl Edwards        Ford       200
 7.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  200
 8.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet  200
 9.  Shane Huffman       Chevrolet  200
10.  Marcos Ambrose      Ford       200
11.  Jon Wood            Ford       200
12.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet  200
13.  Mike Wallace        Chevrolet  200
14.  Bobby Hamilton Jr.  Ford       199
15.  Ward Burton         Ford       199
16.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet  198
17.  Steve Wallace       Dodge      198
18.  Stephen Leicht      Ford       198
19.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet  197
20.  Juan Montoya        Dodge      195
21.  Jay Sauter          Chevrolet  195
22.  Justin Diercks      Chevrolet  195
23.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet  194
24.  David Ragan         Ford       194
25.  Dave Blaney         Toyota     193
26.  Eric McClure        Chevrolet  193
27.  Kyle Krisiloff      Ford       191
28.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge      189
29.  Jamie McMurray      Ford       189
30.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge      189
31.  David Reutimann     Toyota     179
32.  David Gilliland     Chevrolet  174
33.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet  172
34.  Brad Keselowski     Chevrolet  170
35.  Brad Coleman        Chevrolet  147
36.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet  132
37.  Jason Leffler       Toyota     123
38.  Greg Biffle         Ford       116
39.  Brent Sherman       Chevrolet   63
40.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   13
41.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        12
42.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   12
43.  Brett Rowe          Chevrolet    3