| | | | | | MAKING DO | Burton tackles spin, mediocre car to stretch lead at PIR | |
| | By SceneDaily Staff AVONDALE, AZ -- Jeff Burton admittedly didn’t have the best car during Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway.
But with a sixth-place finish, the Richard Childress Racing driver maintained his series points leads, actually stretching it from 59 to 80 points.
"It was a good finish for us, but we are missing something at this track,” said Burton, who never led during the 312-lap race. “I am missing something at this track. It has been a thorn in our side. We were going to run 11th, 12th or something like that but [crew chief] Scott [Miller] made a great call and got us a sixth. We will certainly take it.”
That call – to stay on the track when most of the frontrunners pitted for fuel in the final laps – helped complete Burton’s rally from a lap 133 spin triggered when he slid in the oil laid down on the track by the blown engine of Penske Racing’s Ryan Newman.
“We had no damage to the car when we spun in the oil from [Newman] when it blew up,” Burton said. “We were probably pretty lucky there was no damage. We got a little dirt track racing in, but it worked out for us. There was a little bit of luck involved there."
The finish marked Burton’s fourth straight of sixth or better.
| | Posted April 14, 2008 , 9:42 pm EST
Last Updated April 14, 2008 , 9:43 pm EST | | | | | | | | | | |
