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Jeff Burton held off the late charge of Kasey Kahne to win the NASCAR Charlotte 500 race by less than one second on Saturday.
Burton culminated savvy pit strategy on a final stop, going into the pits with the lead and taking fuel only to make sure he was still out front on the restart with 34 laps to go at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Johnson staged a brief battle for the lead, but Burton held steady to snap a 25-race winless streak.
The victory, his second of the season, pushed Burton from fourth to second in the standings with five races to go to decide the title. He trails Johnson by 69 points.
“(Crew chief) Scott (Miller) made a great call there and we were at our best on old tires,’’ said Burton. “It was just a great night for us. I’m just proud of everybody.’’
Burton led twice for 58 laps, but it was the gamble to not get cars and stay out front on that last stop that paid off and got him the win.
“The numbers said we had enough but I wouldn’t have had enough for a green-white-checkered,’’ said Scott Miller, Burton’s crew chief. “We were good at the right time tonight.’’
“He [Burton] has always been on my radar,” said Johnson, who fought late-race handling problems and faded to sixth at the finish after battling Burton for the lead early in the final 33-lap, green-flag run.
Johnson finished one spot ahead of Greg Biffle, who remained third in the standings. Ignition problems cost Carl Edwards 16 laps early in the race and dropped him to 33rd at the finish. Edwards fell from second to fourth in points, 168 behind Johnson.
“We’re halfway,” Burton said after climbing from his car. “It’s way too early to be handing anyone the trophy. It’s our job to put ourselves in position to go to Homestead with a chance to win.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. cut a tire and slammed into the wall on Lap 103 . He finished 36th, 45 laps down.
“No warning—it just popped,” Earnhardt said. “I was running about 90 percent really, not running hard at all. The car was handling pretty good, just popped a tire up there—might have run over something.
“It is pretty disappointing, because I was just taking it pretty easy. We ran real, real hard here in the spring and worked our car too hard. I was just going to take care of the racecar; that was what I was trying to do. We just got some bad luck there.”
Kyle Busch, the regular-season points winner, was fourth for his best finish since the Chase began five weeks ago. Jamie McMurray was fifth, and Johnson faded over the final few laps to finish sixth.
Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and David Ragan rounded out the top 10.
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