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Saturday slip-up Catch can dooms Martin's chances of Busch win
Posted: Saturday May 27, 2000 06:26 PM
CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -- Jeff Burton went to school last weekend during the Winston Cup all-star race - then went out and won the Carquest Auto Parts 300 race Saturday. Burton took advantage of a mistake by Mark Martin's pit crew, a gamble from his own team and a wreck by Matt Kenseth near the finish for his second Busch Grand National victory this season and 12th of his career. Burton watched Dale Earnhardt Jr. take on four fresh tires and race from back in the pack to win last Saturday's Winston all-star race. He used that same strategy again during a hot and humid day at Lowe's Motor Speedway. "That was the thing to do," Burton said of the decision by crew chief Tommy Morgan to pit alone under caution with 16 laps left. "If he would have told me to stay out I would have overruled him and come in." Burton beat Martin, who had won three of the last four Carquest 300 races at Lowe's, by about one second. He also beat Martin under caution March 4 in Las Vegas. "This (track) has been our Achilles' heel," Burton said of his Busch runs on the 1.5-mile track. "We just haven't run well here but we really ran well today."
Burton and Martin are Ford teammates, so the win broke a string of five straight Busch wins by Chevrolets. "They're on the top of their game right now," Busch points leader Jeff Green said of Burton and Martin. Green started 26th, but finished third for his fourth straight top three finish. Jeff Gordon was fourth and Todd Bodine fifth. All three drive Chevrolets. "I think I needed my Winston Cup car," Gordon said. "Those guys were real, real strong. We did everything we possibly could. I don't know what we could have done to go any faster." Martin, who dominated the first half of the race, failed to win because his pit crew didn't remove a gasoline catch can from his Ford during a pit stop of the leaders with 36 laps left. Martin was in second place behind Burton at the time, but had to return to the pits to have the equipment removed and a stop-and-go penalty dropped him to 10th. "It was a good recovery for us," said Martin, who has four Busch wins this season. "Jeff Burton just kind of outdrove us today." "Mark had a great car today but a tough day in the pits," added car owner Jack Roush. Burton changed four tires with 16 laps to go - a small gamble that paid huge dividends when Kenseth wrecked with nine laps left and Burton was able to outrace Gordon back to the start-finish line. "I raced back to the line because I didn't know if we would get started again," Burton said. "That late in the race you always race back to the flag. Once the green flag dropped with five laps left, Burton was able to pull away on his fresh tires. "I didn't think Gordon could beat us with two tires. He couldn't run with us before and we had four new tires," Burton said. "I was more worried about Mark (Martin)." Martin led 55 of the first 89 laps and was in front by five seconds before the race's seventh caution for debris on the track. All the leaders changed tires and Martin was beaten out of the pits by three other drivers. But Martin soon picked off Gordon and Bodine before settling into second behind Burton as the two Winston Cup veterans took charge of the 200-lap race. "He's the master of this Busch racing. He's the best one," Burton said of Martin, who is the career victory leader with 44. "I knew he'd make a charge at us." The 13th race of the season got off to a sluggish start with seven caution flags in the opening 89 laps. "It was 98, 99 degrees outside so that means about 120, 130 track temperature," Green said of a series of early wrecks. "If the sunlight hits this track just right it just drags the oil out of it and brings it to the top and makes everybody loose. I was on pins and needles to get around there."
Pole-sitter Dave Blaney didn't take long to fall from
contention. His Pontiac hit the wall out of turn four 12 laps in,
suffering damage to the right side of the car. Blaney returned to
the track one-quarter of the way through the race, but was more
than 40 laps down.
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