Burton wins again in Busch

Burton led the last 26 laps of the race and almost inherited the win from pole-sitter Kyle Busch, who looked set to take his first victory of the season until his last pitstop when he got a penalty for a pit road violation.

"Obviously we had a little bit of luck," said the driver of the No. 29 Richard Childress Chevrolet, who took his 24th career victory in the Busch Series.

"The No. 5 car had some sort of problem in pit road and certainly opened the door for us. In the next-to-last restart he drove off and then we started to catch him a little bit, but I don't think we would've been able to beat him."

Busch, who has led 224 laps during the last two races of the Busch Series, could not believe how an slipped through his fingers in the last caution.

A wheel-nut from his left front was mistakenly worked lose by a member of his crew just before Busch left his pit-box. This caused him to be called to the pits a lap later by NASCAR officials, dropping him from first to 17th.

"I'm very disappointed. It's just a hard break,"  Bush said after the race. "You run so well all day and the team do such a great job here and back at the shop and [a victory] just doesn't come through.

"I don't know if it's my fault, if I'm living life the wrong way or what am I doing, but I just can't get it done."

Busch had a spectacular comeback in the last 20 laps, but could only manage to make his way up to third behind Daytona winner Kevin Harvick who enjoyed a good run to finish 1.064 seconds behind Jeff Burton and move up to second in the points standing.

Carl Edwards had a good run to finish fourth and stay at the front of the points standing. He tried to hold off Kyle Busch in the last few laps but finally couldn't keep up with the Hendrick driver.

Casey Mears was among the fastest drivers in the last part of the race, taking fifth in the end. He chased Busch through the field in the last 15 laps and was able to make progress to get his second top-five finish of the season.

Behind them, Juan Pablo Montoya was the best rookie, taking his best result to date in an oval by finishing eighth. He ran as high as sixth in the last part of the race but was hampered by using a used set of tyres in his last stint.

"It was good, the car was amazing and I think this is a big step for me. Mexico was great and everything but I'm really excited right now," the Colombian said.

Tony Stewart, who was also among the top runners all afternoon, ruined his chances of a good result when he entered a closed pit road in the last caution. He received a drive-through penalty, which put him down to 17th, recovering in the end to finish 10th.

The first half of the race saw four different cautions come out, two of them caused by Michael Waltrip. He first crashed on lap 32 coming out of Turn 4, and after his team carried out repairs on his car, he went out to crash again at the same corner five laps later.

Jason Leffler and Reed Sorenson came together on lap 64, also at Turn 4, while Steven Wallace and Jon Wood crashed later in the race out of Turn 2. Kyle Krisiloff and Tony Raines also had contact in a very bizarre incident during the fourth caution of the race.

The sixth and final caution came out with 28 laps to go when Sam Hornish Jr tapped the rear of Tood Kluever, sending him to the wall.

Hornish, who had started fifth as the best non-Cup driver, rubbed fenders in the first few laps with Montoya but despite his bumpy run he finished 15th.

Results

Pos  Driver              Make      Laps
 1.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  195
 2.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  195
 3.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet  195
 4.  Carl Edwards        Ford       195
 5.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet  195
 6.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  195
 7.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge      195
 8.  Juan Montoya        Dodge      195
 9.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       195
10.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  195
11.  David Stremme       Dodge      195
12.  Robby Gordon        Ford       195
13.  David Reutimann     Toyota     195
14.  Jamie McMurray      Ford       195
15.  Sam Hornish Jr.     Dodge      195
16.  Dave Blaney         Toyota     195
17.  Mike Wallace        Chevrolet  195
18.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet  194
19.  Shane Huffman       Chevrolet  194
20.  David Ragan         Ford       194
21.  Ward Burton         Ford       194
22.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet  194
23.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet  194
24.  Bobby Hamilton Jr.  Ford       194
25.  Brad Keselowski     Chevrolet  193
26.  Brent Sherman       Chevrolet  193
27.  Aric Almirola       Chevrolet  192
28.  Marcos Ambrose      Ford       192
29.  Stephen Leicht      Ford       191
30.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet  190
31.  David Gilliland     Chevrolet  189
32.  Ron Young           Chevrolet  189
33.  Todd Kluever        Ford       164
34.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet  152
35.  Steve Wallace       Dodge      139
36.  Jon Wood            Ford       139
37.  Eric McClure        Chevrolet  107
38.  Kyle Krisiloff      Ford        80
39.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       63
40.  Greg Biffle         Ford        63
41.  Jason Leffler       Toyota      62
42.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet   33
43.  Michael Waltrip     Toyota      16