Jeff Burton Leads Childress Sweep at Bristol Motor Speedway

Bristol Motor Speedway demonstrated today why they are one of the few tracks that still sells out every single event. Today's race had some slow moments as drivers were bracing for the finish. That finish did not disappoint as the last 15 laps saw three different leaders, differing pit strategies and some Bristol beating and banging.

Qualifying

Qualifying was rained out so the field was set by 2007 car owner points.

2006 and 2007 Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson started on the pole with teammate Jeff Gordon along side in second. Richard Childress Racing's Clint Bowyer started third with Roush-Fenway Racing's Matt Kenseth on the outside of row two. Casey Mears rounded out the top five in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Drop Of The Green

Jimmie Johnson lead lap one as Jeff Gordon settled in behind him. Matt Kenseth jumped to the outside and starting working on laying down some rubber on the outside lane but the top five didn't change through the first ten laps.

It rained hard on Saturday night which washed all of the rubber from the Nationwide Series race off of the race track. This took away the outside lane and caused everyone to get in line and run the inside lane.

Clint Bowyer had his car working at the start and he moved past the Hendrick teammates to take the top spot and lead to the safety caution that NASCAR threw at lap 50.

Storylines

Joe Gibbs Racing drivers were dominating the middle portion of the race. Denny Hamlin was leading when the caution came out for an unrelated incident. Even though the field was frozen when the yellow came out Juan Pablo Montoya dove under Hamlin in a attempt to get back on the lead lap. He hit Hamlin and Hamlin slid up and hit Casey Mears. Hamlin was injured enough to effectively drop from contention.

Hamlin's Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch took over the lead during the following pit stops. When the race went green again Busch had a power steering problem and crashed, backing it into the inside wall and putting him out of contention.

This was a bad break for two of the Joe Gibbs Toyotas. However, when the green flag flew again Tony Stewart found himself leading the pack in his Toyota.

Chasing The Checkers

Tony Stewart dominated the second half of the race.

Stewart lead by .33 seconds over Kevin Harvick and .9 seconds over Denny Hamlin with 15 laps to go. The caution flew with 11 laps to go. Harvick pitted but Stewart and Hamlin stayed out.

Stewart got a great restart with five laps to go but Hamlin tracked him down and passed him just two laps later. Kevin Harvick was slicing back to the front on fresh tires when he got into the side of Tony Stewart and spun him out.

Denny Hamlin lead Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick to the final green-white-checkers finish. Something happened to Hamlin on the restart and Jeff Burton took the lead and the win.

Richard Childress Racing swept the top three spots as Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer all finished on the podium.

Top Ten

1. Jeff Burton
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Clint Bowyer
4. Greg Biffle
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Kasey Kahne
8. Aric Almirola
9. David Gilliland
10. Matt Kenseth

The Points

Point leader Kyle Busch was running up front again when bad luck struck. He ended up tw laps down but it was good enough for 17th. He maintained the point lead but gave up a little bit of his cushion.

The top twelve are now:

1. Kyle Busch
2. Greg Biffle -30
3. Kevin Harvick -33
4. Jeff Burton -37
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -96
6. Kasey Kahne -108
7. Tony Stewart -126
8. Ryan Newman -147
9. Clint Bowyer -176
10. Kurt Busch -177
11. Matt Kenseth -178
12. Martin Truex Jr. -187

Next Week

NASCAR will take its first break of the season next week as the sport traditionally takes Easter weekend off. In two weeks the Sprint Cup series will return to action as the short track at Martinsville Speedway will host on March 30th.