Burton takes last lap win at Texas

Burton ran the whole race in the top ten but led only the final lap after pulling off a pass on Kenseth on the inside of Turn 2. He first attacked the Roush Fenway driver with 11 laps to go, but he saved his best for last.

"That was obviously a lot of fun," Burton said. "Matt Kenseth is one hell of a race car driver, but we were quite a bit faster.

"He is really smart and took away any opportunity I had of moving to the outside. I just drove it in there in the last lap and it just stuck.

Kenseth looked like he was going to be able to fend off Burton's attack by running on the outside of him but just didn't have the speed to keep him at bay.

"I just got beaten," Kenseth said. "He was running me down real fast and in the last lap I tried to stay as close as I could to him.

"I did what I thought was right and tried to get around as fast as I could. He was able to get in the gas earlier and pass me."

Mark Martin finished third on his return after a two-race absence, overtaking Jeff Gordon in the final laps.

The four-time Nextel Cup champion led the most laps and looked set for his first victory of the season until he brushed the wall with 23 laps remainning.

"It was just a stupid mistake," explained Gordon, who leads the title standing by just eight points from Burton.

"I just came out of Turn 4 and the thing took off pushing on me. It definately pushed the right front fender in and then we were done from that point on."

Dale Earnhardt Jr and Gordon kept the fans on their feet in the first half of the race with an entertainning battle for the lead. Eventually, Earnhardt overtook Gordon and was then running a solid second before he got hit from behind by Kyle Busch.

The incident unfolded when Tony Stewart spun out of Turn 4 on lap 253 trying to get back on the lead lap by overtaking race leader Kurt Busch.

Earnhardt was runnning behind and when he slowed down to avoid Stewart, Busch hit the back of his No. 8 Chevrolet hard.

At that stage Stewart was trying to recover from a previous incident with Juan Pablo Montoya. As both were battling for eighth place, Stewart spun after making contact with the Colombian, who was trying to overtake the former champion on the inside of Turn 2.

Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson had just been passed by Stewart and Montoya when the Joe Gibbs driver spun and was unable to avoid the Home Depot car which was sliding down the track in the middle of a huge cloud of tyre smoke.

Montoya carried on without trouble and eventually finished eighth, although he could not match his mid-race pace in the early part of his last stint, losing places to Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle and Martin Truex Jr who finished 5th, 6th and 7th respectively.

"It's funny. You know, last week I was very happy with like a 19th in Martinsville two weeks ago and finish eighth today and I'm a little disappointed," Monyoya said.

"I know we just couldn't get going at the beginning of the run and that cost us a lot."

Denny Hamlin and David Stremme rounded up the top ten, while Brian Vickers was the best Toyota in 14th.

Pos  Driver              Make        Laps
 1.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   334
 2.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        334
 3.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   334
 4.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   334
 5.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        334
 6.  Greg Biffle         Ford        334
 7.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet   334
 8.  Juan Montoya        Dodge       334
 9.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet   334
10.  David Stremme       Dodge       334
11.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       334
12.  Carl Edwards        Ford        334
13.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet   334
14.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      334
15.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet   333
16.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   333
17.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge       333
18.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet   333
19.  David Gilliland     Ford        332
20.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       332
21.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      332
22.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet   332
23.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   332
24.  Robby Gordon        Ford        332
25.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   332
26.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet   332
27.  Scott Riggs         Dodge       331
28.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge       331
29.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   331
30.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota      331
31.  Ken Schrader        Ford        331
32.  Ryan Newman         Dodge       330
33.  Ricky Rudd          Ford        321
34.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet   304
35.  Kyle Petty          Dodge       291
36.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   288
37.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet   262
38.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   260
39.  David Ragan         Ford        239
40.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       197
41.  Mike Bliss          Dodge        42
42.  Kenny Wallace       Chevrolet    39