NASCAR Cup

Dover: Jeff Burton race report

Burton, No. 31 Crew Tame Monster Mile with Runner-Up Finish Jeff Burton and the Cat Racing team tamed Dover International Speedway's "Monster Mile" by scoring a runner-up finish in Sunday's Autism Speaks 400 presented by Hershey's Milk & ...

Edited: May 18, 2010, 12:20 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Burton, No. 31 Crew Tame Monster Mile with Runner-Up Finish

Jeff Burton and the Cat Racing team tamed Dover International Speedway's "Monster Mile" by scoring a runner-up finish in Sunday's Autism Speaks 400 presented by Hershey's Milk & Milkshakes, scoring their second consecutive top-10 finish and fifth top-10 effort of the season.

The rock-solid result advanced the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing team one spot, to eighth, in the Sprint Cup Series point standings with 12 races in the record books. Burton continues to pursue teammate and point leader Kevin Harvick whom he sits 199 points in arrears to. However, for the second week in a row, the Todd Berrier-led group padded the difference between the spot they occupy and the Chase for the Championship cutoff spot of 12th, increasing the distance to 135 markers.

Although the concrete one-mile oval is known for taking prisoners, the Caterpillar crew knew the performance of their machine and their driver and had intentions of rebounding after several heartbreaking race weekends.

Burton recorded the 17th-fastest time during Friday's time trials session that placed him on the inside of row nine for the 400-lap affair and once the green flag waved, he never looked back.

The South Boston, Va., native spent the initial 50 or so laps accessing the handling of the No. 31 Chevy and determining what it needed for remainder of the race.

After a quick pit stop during the lap-55 caution period, which included air pressure adjustments to the newly bolted on Goodyear tires, the 2006 Dover race winner was back in action and kicked the black and yellow machine into gear. He cracked the top 15 at lap 83 and slid into 10th 27 laps later.

A long-green flag run ensued and before Berrier called the veteran driver to pit road for service, he let Burton lead lap 135, gaining five valuable bonus points. The RCR driver visited his seven-member over-the-wall crew on the ensuing lap and once green-flag pit stops cycled through, Burton was scored ninth on the leaderboard.

Over the middle stages of the 400-lap contest, the 21-time Sprint Cup Series winner continued his march toward the front, making his way up to second, on the heels of continuous adjustments to the Caterpillar Chevy.

In the event's final 100 laps, Burton, for the most part, held the fourth position before the day's final green-flag pit stops occurred with less than 40 circuits to go.

Burton quickly flexed his muscle and notched two spots with 19 laps remaining and fought with everything he and the Caterpillar Chevy had to reel in the leader, but time expired and he added a runner-up finish to his Dover resume.

Kyle Busch beat Burton to the checkers by 7.55 seconds and won his second race of the season. The balance of the top five consisted of Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and David Reutimann.

Burton's RCR teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer placed seventh and 17th, respectively.

NASCAR's senior circuit heads to the heartland of racing country where the No. 31 transporter will make the quick trip down Interstate 85 to Concord, N.C. next weekend for the second and final non-points event of the season.

Live coverage of the Sprint Showdown from Charlotte Motor Speedway will be televised on SPEED Saturday, May 22, beginning at 7 p.m.

JEFF BURTON: "It was a good run for us today. Obviously, we didn't think we were as good as the No. 48 most of the day. We had one run where I thought the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevy was a little better than he was, but, overall, he was a touch better. I thought we were about even with the No. 18 but he seemed to have gotten better late in the race. We just need to keep knocking on the door and we'll get us some (wins)."

-source: rcr

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Dover: Regan Smith race report

Next article Dover: Marcos Ambrose race report

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Pecco Bagnaia 'feels like a factory rider again' as he finds form in Qatar

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

2 min

Pecco Bagnaia 'feels like a factory rider again' as he finds form in Qatar

NASCAR CEO likes what Carson Hocevar “brings to the fan base,” but says on-track work remains

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

3 min

NASCAR CEO likes what Carson Hocevar “brings to the fan base,” but says on-track work remains

Preseason Thunder will not return to Daytona in 2027

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

19 min

Preseason Thunder will not return to Daytona in 2027

NASCAR exploring cost cap after talks with Formula 1

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

29 min

NASCAR exploring cost cap after talks with Formula 1

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts