Jeff Burton has been knocking on the door all season and today the #31 Cingular Wireless team kicked that door in. Burton passed Matt Kenseth with six laps to go today at Dover International Speedway and went on to win the Dover 400 by almost 8 seconds, and we beat the rain by all of about 10 minutes. Burton broke a 175 race losing streak (his last win was at Phoenix in October of 2001) for his 18th career win (he’s now tied with Geoffrey Bodine, Neil Bonnett, and Harry Gant for 35th on the all-time win list). He’s the 12th different winner of 2006, and the third winner in a row for Richard Childress (he now has 82 all-time). The victory was worth $230,370 from the over $5M in posted awards. We had great racing today for the final 20 laps or so….maybe the best stretch we’ve seen in a long time. Both Kenseth & Burton were working overtime to make sure they kept their cars off each other, and they were successful….proving it can be done! The decision by the #17 Dewalt Team to stay out on that last caution and not take fuel may come back to haunt them. Check back in about 8 weeks and we’ll see just how big those 36 points are.
Carl Edwards (2nd) had his best finish since he was runner-up at Loudon in July
Kurt Busch (4th) had his best finish since he was runner-up at Pocono in July
Greg Biffle (5th) had his best finish since he was 3rd at Loudon in July
Martin Truex Jr (6th) had his career-best finish today. His previous best was 7th at Lowe’s in May of 2005
Bobby Labonte (7th) had his best finish since he was 5th at Bristol in March
Kyle Petty (25th) had his best finish since he was 21st at Infineon in June
David Gilliland (27th) had his career-best finish today. His previous best was 32nd twice….once at Infineon in June and again at Fontana earlier this month
Stanton Barrett (35th) had his best finish since he was 33rd at Phoenix in April (only three races)
STREAKIN….Matt Kenseth has 6 Top-10’s in a row
…Denny Hamlin has 9 Top-10’s in the last 10 races
…Jeff Gordon has 5 Top-5’s in the last 6 races
This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the Week is Martin Truex Jr (+27), followed by Dave Blaney (+26). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Scott Riggs (-32), followed by Robby Gordon (-27), Kevin Lepage (-26), Joe Nemechek (-21), and Ryan Newman (-20).
We have a new “Chase” leader as Jeff Burton assumes the points lead by six markers. We’ve got a spread of 18 points 1st to 4th.
In “Classic” points six positions in the Top-10 changed hands. We had five drivers advance two spots, and Kyle Busch fell four spots (6th to 10th).(Stock Car Fans)(9-24-2006)
