Carquest 300

This time at Charlotte, everything fell into place for Jeff Burton.

Mark was in control most of the race

Burton, who had never finished better than fourth in a NASCAR Grand National series race at Lowe's Motor Speedway, turned a late four-tire pit stop and a pit road mishap by his Roush Racing teammate, Mark Martin, into victory in Saturday's Carquest 300.

Burton held off Mark by 0.930 seconds to claim the win - his first at the 1.5-mile superspeedway and 12th in the series. Series points leader Jeff Green was third, Jeff Gordon was fourth and Todd Bodine rounded out the top five.

"(Mark's) the master at (Grand National) racing. He's the best that ever has been and I knew he'd make a charge at us," Burton said. "These guys did a great job all weekend. I'm real proud of them. We've really struggled here, ran well the last time we were here (fourth last October) and this time we finally got it all together."

After the race, Burton drove his No. 9 Ford into Victory Lane, where a flag flew overhead in memory of series driver Adam Petty, killed May 12 in a practice session crash at New Hampshire International Speedway.

"I tell you, without having to say it too many times, we lost a really, really big part of this sport in Adam. We're going to dedicate this (win) to him," Burton said.

Mark, the all-time series wins leader, was in command much of the early part of the race, leading 56 of the first 100 laps. Burton took the lead on Lap 123 of the 200-lap race and held it until the beginning of a round of green-flag pit stops, when Gordon moved out front on Lap 165.

Mark was the first to pit, taking just two tires. But he was forced to return to pit road for a stop-and-go penalty because the catch can, placed on the car to catch overflowing gas during his pit stop, wasn't removed before he pulled away.

"I don't know what happened. I was in the car," Mark said. "It was a good recovery for us. We gave it our best shot today, but Jeff Burton just kind of outdrove us today, so we'll have to try to get him next time."

Burton had great pit stops

The pit road miscue sent Mark back to 12th, while Burton took on four tires and overtook Gordon, then the leader, on Lap 174. A caution for debris bunched the field back up and Gordon retook the lead after Burton, Green and Matt Kenseth pitted for fresh tires with Burton taking four.

Burton moved ahead of Gordon on Lap 192 after Kenseth and Elton Sawyer got together on the front stretch and held off a late charge from Mark to win.

"This place has been our Achilles' heel and we really ran well today," Burton said. "We had a great race with Mark for a long time. We had some good pit stops, we did a good job in practice and we did a good job qualifying (the car)."

Green, who now holds a 93-point lead over Bodine in the series standings (1,958-1,865), said he was pleased with the third-place finish.

"A top five anywhere is good. You come to Charlotte and the only two guys who beat you are Burton and Mark Martin, that's a pretty happy day for Jeff Green," he said. "We were fighting a loose condition all day and on the last green-flag stop, we got it tightened up and we were good then.

"On that last restart, coming in to get tires was a great call. It gave us a shot at Mark and, I thought, Jeff Burton."

Gordon, who posted his best series finish since he won the Grand National race at Phoenix last November, said he didn't have an answer for Burton.

"I think I needed my Winston Cup car. Those guys were real, real strong," Gordon said. "We really did everything we possibly could. The car was working perfect. I don't know what we could have done to go any faster."


Congratulations, Jeff Burton, for the win at the 2000 NASCAR Busch Series Carquest 300 in Charlotte.