Burton wins Lowe's Busch race

The Richard Childress Racing driver dominated the last quarter of the race having made his way up the from the back of the grid, where he started following a penalty for an engine change.

For a moment it seemed like Dale Earnhardt Jr was going to give him a tough time in the closing laps but a very timely caution came out with 17 laps remaining and allowed the tyres on Burton's No.29 Chevy to cool down for the final sprint of the race.

Before that he was starting to have his mirrors filled with the No.8 car as he continuously lost front-end grip every lap. But after the caution he was able to open a comfortable gap on the last restart to cruise home and takes RCR's eleventh Busch Series win of the season.

"Obviously real happy with tonight," said Burton. "We broke an engine yesterday, which I can't remember the last time we broke an engine in a Busch car, but we broke an engine.

"We started in the back and our guys did a great job of changing, and not only did we change the engine, but changed the oil lines and whole system and went out cold turkey and obviously everything was good. Any time you start in the back and can win the race, it's really rewarding."

Burton was able to avoid trouble all night, something that some of his Nextel Cup colleagues could not do. He had to run on the grass on lap 140 when Clint Bowyer spun ahead of him while leading on a restart, collecting Greg Biffle in the incident. The Roush Fenway driver had been looking like one of the strongest contenders for victory up until then.

Jimmie Johnson, who was making just his third Busch Series start of the season, spun on a restart on lap 133 and ignited a crash that took him out of the race as well as some of the 'Buschwhackers' including points leader Carl Edwards and his teammate Matt Kenseth.

Edwards had led the most laps until he pitted under caution on lap 128, making an adjustment to the right rear of his car. His race turned right and into the wall from there on as his position in the pack meant he was involved in the crash which prevented him from clinching the title for the second race in a row.

"Jimmie just got loose and I got kind of messed up and somebody just got me on the left rear," Edwards said. "We had the fastest car and on the way to the infield car centre I was saying to myself 'man, we should've stayed out on the lead' and we saw the leaders just wrecking.

"It's just racing. It's really high pressure racing here. The tyres make a tonne of grip and there's really no room for error. It's tough."

Kyle Busch finished second after overtaking Earnhardt Jr at the last restart. For his part the DEI driver secured a third place finish in his final race in the Busch Series driving for his current team. He brushed the wall early on but got his car quickly back in shape to get in contention for victory again.

"We got in the wall and messed it up," said Earnhardt. "I was about to come in the pits and just get out; but I got it going again a little bit and we found some speed, fixed the fender and my pit stops were amazing.

"Jeff broke out and I thought we could race him and try to win but once the caution came out we were just too tight on the short run and I got passed by Kyle. I got passed by 18 (Aric Almirola) too, but finally got going there with about three to go and got back by [him]."

Almirola finished a strong fourth, scoring his best result of the season to date, despite being credited with victory at Milwaukee where Denny Hamlin actually drove the car to the chequered flag. This time he comfortable beat his more experienced teammate, who finished just behind him in fifth.

David Ragan was the only Roush Fenway car to cross the finish line despite being the slowest of the team in qualifying. He finished sixth and edged closer to taking the Rookie of the Year title, on a day when all his veteran teammates crashed in a matter of laps as the race approached its final stages.

The Busch Series will now have another weekend off before moving to Memphis, where chances are very high that Edwards will be crowned champion. He currently enjoys a 638-point gap to David Reutimann and if he leaves Memphis more than 585 points ahead of second place in the standings, he will mathematically clinch the title.

Pos  Driver             Car        Laps
 1.  Jeff Burton        Chevrolet  200
 2.  Kyle Busch         Chevrolet  200
 3.  Dale Earnhardt Jr  Chevrolet  200
 4.  Aric Almirola      Chevrolet  200
 5.  Denny Hamlin       Chevrolet  200
 6.  David Ragan        Ford       200
 7.  Robby Gordon       Ford       200
 8.  Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet  200
 9.  Kelly Bires        Ford       200
10.  Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet  200
11.  Brad Keselowski    Chevrolet  200
12.  David Reutimann    Toyota     200
13.  Scott Wimmer       Chevrolet  200
14.  Bobby Labonte      Chevrolet  200
15.  Mike Wallace       Chevrolet  200
16.  Bobby Hamilton Jr  Ford       200
17.  Kasey Kahne        Dodge      200
18.  Stephen Leicht     Ford       200
19.  Jason Leffler      Toyota     200
20.  Bryan Clauson      Dodge      200
21.  Kyle Krisiloff     Ford       200
22.  Casey Atwood       Ford       199
23.  Jeremy Clements    Chevrolet  198
24.  Stanton Barrett    Chevrolet  196
25.  Reed Sorenson      Dodge      182
26.  AJ Allmendinger    Dodge      179
27.  Richard Johns      Ford       173
28.  Brad Baker         Ford       168
29.  Mike Bliss         Dodge      142
30.  Greg Biffle        Ford       140
31.  Matt Kenseth       Ford       133
32.  Jimmie Johnson     Chevrolet  133
33.  Carl Edwards       Ford       132
34.  Jason Keller       Chevrolet  131
35.  Blake Bjorklund    Chevrolet  122
36.  Dave Blaney        Toyota     121
37.  J.J. Yeley         Chevrolet  118
38.  Jamie McMurray     Ford       106
39.  Bobby Santos       Toyota     95
40.  Marcos Ambrose     Ford       27
41.  Carl Long          Dodge      27
42.  Kertus Davis       Chevrolet  16
43.  Morgan Shepherd    Dodge      14