While Gibbs Cars Falter At Race’s End

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Richard Childress Racing scored a stunning 1-2-3 sweep with Jeff Burton winning the NASCAR Food City 500 in surprising fashion Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Burton grabbed the lead in a green-white-checkered finish when leader Denny Hamlin’s Toyota had a fuel pickup problem during the final restart. As Hamlin pulled to the bottom of the track, Burton led RCR teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer to the checkered flag.
It was Burton’s first Cup win at Bristol in 29 races. Last year, he finished second to Kyle Busch in what was the first race for NASCAR’s new car.
“It was just like last year, only a different car in front of me,” Burton said. “I don’t know what happened to Denny, if he ran out of gas or something. He quit, and we kept going.”
Greg Biffle’s Ford was fourth, followed by the Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
One week after blistering Goodyear officials for what he considered a terrible tire, Tony Stewart got blistered by Harvick, who spun him out with two laps to go while battling for second.
That set up the green-white-checkered finish.

ORANGE AFFAIR: Jeff Burton captured the victory in Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, his first at the .533-mile oval. (Autostock Photo)

In addition to hard feelings between the two drivers, the spotters for Stewart and Harvick apparently had words on the roof.
“I just lost it,” Harvick said. “Tony and I can work this out — we don’t need some idiot spotter up there trying to sort this out.
“I told my spotter to go up there and tell him what happened and the first thing his spotter commenced to doing was how he was going to kick my ass or Tony was going to do it for him,” Harvick recalled. “I was pretty ticked off by that when I got out of my car, but I can talk about it now. If his spotter wants to have a bad attitude about it, he can come down here and we can handle it. I didn’t appreciate that part of it.”
Stewart dominated the race, leading 267 laps. The two-time series champion used old tires to get a good jump on the restart with five laps left in the race and was able to pull away before Hamlin blasted by him with four to go.
Meanwhile, Harvick, who had four fresh tires, went to the inside of Stewart’s Toyota with two laps to go — and the result was contact that sent Stewart into the wall.
“I thought I left him plenty of room,” said Stewart, who finished 14th. “I was far enough ahead of him, I thought I gave him the room. Somehow, it’s my fault. I’m sorry I got in the way.”
The race was scheduled for 500 laps, but actually went 506 when it went into overtime. There were 17 lead changes among eight drivers and 10 caution periods for 68 laps.

DAMAGED GOODS: Tony Stewart's Toyota shows rear end damage after crashing late in Sunday's race at Bristol Motor Speedway. (HHP/Erik Perel Photo)

A six-car pileup on lap 191 involved Ryan Newman, Paul Menard, Jamie McMurray, Dario Franchitti, Bobby Labonte and Ken Schrader.
Franchitti was in another crash on lap 280 when he was tagged from behind by Paul Menard. Casey Mears and Denny Hamlin were involved in a separate crash on the same lap as they were slowing down to avoid the incident.
Kyle Busch, who won last week’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, spun out while leading the race on lap 292.
With 123 laps left until the finish, Jimmie Johnson ran into the back of Burton’s Chevy and spun out for the eighth caution of the race.
Meanwhile, Burton celebrated his first victory at the unique .533-mile concrete oval.
“Every win is different and unique,” Burton said. “What I’m proud of today is we did the little things right. That’s what I’m proud of. There are as many that we look back on and think we should have won but didn’t. I won’t lose sleep tonight because we didn’t have the fastest car; all I know is we have the trophy.
“When Kevin and Tony got into each other, I viewed that as the opening and we had to jump through it. Kevin and I banged doors and for both of us to come through that and then Denny had his problems. The restart worked out perfect. I almost ran into him, but it worked out.”
Burton, who also pitted for four fresh tires on his final pit stop, led just two laps in the race.
Those were the most important laps in the contest. He won $209,558 for his 20th career Sprint Cup win.
It was also the first win for Chevrolet this season.