Jeff Burton picked up his second win of the season and tightened up the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings with his victory Saturday night in the Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
Burton drove his Richard Childress Racing AT&T Chevrolet to victory lane and in the process moved to second in the Chase standings only 69 behind leader Jimmie Johnson.
"We're halfway. A lot of stuff is going to happen," Burton said. "A lot of people want to give somebody the trophy, but it's way too early."
A late fuel only pit stop proved to be the winning move for Burton who led the final 58 laps of Saturday night's race to score his third career win at LMS.
"(Crew chief) Scott (Miller) made a great call there," Burton said. "That's what won the race. We were at our best on old tires, and we were good enough when it counted."
It was car owner Richard Childress' first Sprint Cup Series win at Charlotte since 1994.
Kasey Kahne put on a hard charge in the closing laps and finished second, coming up only one position short of sweeping all three Sprint Cup races at LMS this season.
Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top five.
Johnson, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and David Ragan completed the first ten finishers.
Biffle remained third in the standings and trails Johnson by 86 points.
"We were junk at the end,” Johnson said. “I tried to get up there. Took a lot of risk tonight, tried to get as many points as I could. Tried to hang with (Burton) and get by him, damn near threw it away a couple of times. The last third of the race we got out in left field and couldn’t get it back.”
The night turned out to be a disaster for Carl Edwards, who entered the weekend second in the standings and only 72 behind Johnson.
But an early race electrical problem plagued the Roush Fenway Racing No. 99 Ford.
"They wound up changing both ignition boxes and the wiring harness that controls it and then magically it had ignition again," car owner Jack Roush said. "But it had no ignition on either box and the initial diagnosis was that it was dead."
Edwards finished 33rd and fell to fourth in the standings now 168 out of the lead.
"I can guarantee you that if I had the week to do over again, the last seven days would be a lot different," said Edwards after his Talladega crash of a week ago and ensuing feud with Kevin Harvick. "But you just have to do what you think is right at the time and move on after that. Today’s race didn’t help at all."
Edwards' teammate Matt Kenseth had a bad night as well, getting caught up in an accident and finishing 41st.
"There was just an accident I slowed down for and just got ran over from behind," said Kenseth.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had another frustrating night when a blown right front tire sent him hard into the Turn 2 wall on lap 103. He finished 36th.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series now heads to Martinsville Speedway next Sunday afternoon.
