By Reid Spencer

CONCORD, NC -October 11, 2008- Despite Jimmie Johnson’s fast start to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Jeff Burton hasn’t been willing to concede the trophy to the two-time defending champion.

On Saturday night, Burton gave more than lip service to that notion, holding off Kasey Kahne to win the Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The victory, Burton’s second of the season and the 21st of his career, vaulted the driver of the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet into second place in the standings, 69 points behind Johnson with five races left in the Chase.

“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.

Burton had enough speed to hold off Kasey Kahne, who crossed the finish line .946 seconds behind the winner. Kurt Busch ran third, followed by Kyle Busch and Jamie McMurray.

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 (to the end of the Chase),”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 (the season's final race) with a chance to win.”

Burton kept the lead with a gas-and-go on his final pit stop on Lap 298, a call made by crew chief Scott Miller.

“That’s what won the race for us,” said Burton, who held the lead for the final 57 of 334 laps after passing Biffle for the top spot on Lap 278.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. cut a tire and slammed into the Turn 2 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.”

Clean air was king at Lowe’s, where Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers all opened leads of more than seven seconds at various points in the race. Stewart’s handling suffered in traffic, however, and he finished 11th but remained seventh in the Chase standings, 228 points behind Johnson.

Vickers suffered a hard brush with the Turn 4 wall on Lap 252 and fell to 18th at the finish, one lap down.

For Edwards, the end to the fifth Chase week couldn’t have come soon enough, after he scuffled with Kevin Harvick in the Nationwide garage on Thursday and spent the next two days fending off questions about the fracas.

“There’s only one thing to do, and that’s to learn from everything this week,” Edwards said. “That’s for sure. I can guarantee you that if I had the week to do over again, the last seven days would be a lot different. But you just have to do what you think is right at the time and move on after that.

“Today’s race didn’t help at all. That car right there is a great racecar. I don’t know if we’ve ever had the problem that we had there. It was something with the ignition system, so it’s very frustrating, but nobody got hurt at least, I guess.”

RESULTS

FIN ST CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS WINNINGS
1 4 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet AT&T Mobility 190/5 334 Running 280,208
2 15 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Budweiser 170/0 334 Running 207,766
3 19 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 165/0 334 Running 145,750
4 11 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M's / Susan G Komen for the Cure 165/5 334 Running 141,875
5 21 26 Jamie McMurray Ford Crown Royal 155/0 334 Running 128,775
6 1 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe's 160/10 334 Running 169,036
7 3 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M 151/5 334 Running 101,625
8 8 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 147/5 334 Running 141,961
9 14 8 Mark Martin Chevrolet U.S. Army 138/0 334 Running 120,358
10 13 6 David Ragan Ford AAA Insurance 139/5 334 Running 94,875
11 7 20 Tony Stewart Toyota The Home Depot 135/5 334 Running 140,536
12 5 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Jack Daniel's 127/0 334 Running 92,725
13 6 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil "Driven to the Outdoors" 124/0 334 Running 121,061
14 18 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 126/5 334 Running 116,383
15 30 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge Target 123/5 334 Running 102,064
16 12 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Office 115/0 334 Running 107,741
17 20 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios Racing / Let's Pink Together 112/0 333 Running 109,036
18 17 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 114/5 333 Running 79,550
19 33 66 Scott Riggs Chevrolet State Water Heaters 106/0 333 Running 89,208
20 22 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Stanley / Susan G Komen for the Cure 103/0 333 Running 99,345
21 16 12 Ryan Newman Dodge Alltel 105/5 333 Running 109,350
22 36 77 Sam Hornish Jr. * Dodge Mobil 1 97/0 332 Running 114,025
23 29 01 Regan Smith * Chevrolet DEI / Principal Financial Group 94/0 332 Running 78,600
24 31 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA AUTO PARTS 96/5 332 Running 85,458
25 28 38 David Gilliland Ford Ford. Drive one. 88/0 332 Running 83,633
26 27 15 Paul Menard Chevrolet Moen / Menards 85/0 331 Running 76,675
27 32 22 Dave Blaney Toyota Caterpillar 82/0 331 Running 80,108
28 37 21 Bill Elliott Ford U.S. Air Force 79/0 330 Running 83,595
29 23 5 Casey Mears Chevrolet Pop-Tarts / CARQUEST 76/0 330 Running 83,025
30 35 7 Robby Gordon Dodge Menards 78/5 328 Running 85,347
31 40 10 Mike Wallace Dodge Charter Comm. 70/0 326 Running 64,600
32 26 44 David Reutimann Toyota UPS 72/5 321 Running 64,375
33 2 99 Carl Edwards Ford Aflac 64/0 317 Running 112,625
34 24 42 Juan Montoya Dodge Juicy Fruit Slim Pack 61/0 296 Accident 92,033
35 41 45 Chad McCumbee Dodge Marathon American Spirit Motor Oil 58/0 296 Running 63,975
36 10 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet AMP Energy / National Guard 55/0 289 Running 71,800
37 42 78 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet Furniture Row/ DenverMattress.com 52/0 278 Running 63,675
38 39 96 Ken Schrader Toyota DLP HDTV 49/0 255 Running 71,550
39 34 84 Mike Skinner Toyota Red Bull 46/0 254 Running 63,425
40 43 70 Tony Raines Chevrolet Hunt Brothers Pizza 43/0 203 Accident 63,300
41 9 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Carhartt 45/5 194 Accident 110,796
42 25 28 Travis Kvapil Ford Hitachi Power Tools 37/0 194 Accident 90,244
43 38 00 A.J. Allmendinger Toyota Champion Mortgage 39/5 52 Accident 63,298

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