W. Burton snaps slump with rallying win

LOUDON, N.H. -- Ward Burton erased the misery Sunday of his terrible campaign since the season opening Daytona 500 by scoring a stunning victory in the New England 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Burton took the lead in Turn 1 with 10 laps remaining when Matt Kenseth suffered a deflating tire and raced off to defeat Jeff Green by 3.230 seconds for his fifth career victory.

Along with Kenseth and Elliott Sadler, Dale Jarrett looked like he had a strong shot at the win in the last 50 laps before his Ford faded to third at the finish. However, Jarrett's car failed the post-race height inspection by a 1/8th inch and a NASCAR spokesperson said penalties would probably be issued Monday, while the position would stand.

Video: New England 300 Revisit the 14 cautions that caused mayhem for drivers Play video

Despite fears of being unable to pass to a single-groove layout and a combination of a deteriorating track surface and rubber buildup, the top three finishers all started no better than 30th.

Burton started 31st and admitted he had little hope of bettering his previous best finish of eighth in 1999 on account.

Then, Kenseth -- who led a race-high 77 laps -- had his trouble.

Matt Kenseth led the most laps but was forced to pit under green late in the event. Credit: Autostock

"About three laps after the restart I saw Matt get a little loose off of 2, and even looser off of 4," Burton said. "When he went down into Turn 1, he got really loose and I was able to get by him. That bottlenecked the field and I was able to get away from them."

Kenseth had to pit and ended up finishing 33rd.

"Track position was key, like it always is, and Todd (Berrier, crew chief) and the guys did a good job planning that," Green said. "We had a car good enough to handle winning the race but Ward did a good job of getting away from us."

"I knew if we stayed out of trouble we could have a decent run but obviously I didn't expect this," Burton said. "On older tires we were good. Maybe Matt Kenseth was better than I was but you have to be in position to win and we were in position when it counted.

"We ran good all day and we didn't break and that's what's been killing us all year."

"We really needed this," Burton's car owner Bill Davis said. "We've had a horrible season after starting so good, but at least it's been part failures and not mistakes -- and that's a big difference."

Since winning the Daytona 500, Burton had totaled only one other top-five and two more top-10s -- with five DNFs -- while falling to 26th in the standings coming into Sunday's 19th race of 36.

Green, who started 30th, scored his career best finish in his 77th career start. Defending race winner Jarrett scored his first top-five in the last four races after starting 33rd.

Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman rounded out the top-five.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. spins down the backstretch. He finished 23rd.

The race had 22 lead changes among 12 drivers -- the second highest total in 15 Winston Cup races at the 1.058-mile oval since the first, in July 1993. Only the July 1996 Jiffy Lube 300, won by Ernie Irvan, had more, 23.

For a while, when three lead changes occurred between the space of 36 laps involving Jarrett and Sadler, it looked like Jarrett would successfully defend his 2001 win in a wild finish.

Jarrett took the lead with 67 laps remaining on a yellow flag pit sequence. He swapped the front spot twice with Sadler's Ford before Jarrett took the lead with 32 laps remaining. But after the 13th of 14 cautions, and a restart with 22 laps left, Kenseth overtook him.

Sadler -- who was driving his back-up car after crashing his primary car in the weekend's first practice Friday morning -- overcame an early spin but ended up 10th. Todd Bodine; Robby Gordon, who won last fall's NHIS Winston Cup race; Kurt Busch; and Kevin Harvick finished sixth-ninth.

Jimmy Spencer rallied back from this spin to finish 11th.

Proof that it might be a long day occurred three times in the race's first 30 laps. On the second lap, Mike Skinner squeezed Dave Blaney to the inside as the field entered Turn 3 and Blaney backed into the outside wall, scraping the right sides of the cars of Kenseth and Newman.

After Jimmy Spencer harmlessly spun his Dodge coming off Turn 2, Joe Nemechek was eliminated from the race after he slammed backwards into the Turn 1 wall. As the field circled under caution, Nemechek stood outside the ambulance angrily gesturing to his head as Green's car passed by.

"I got a little headache but I'm OK," Nemechek said. "I was a little bit loose (and) the 30 car got a little impatient and knocked his headlight cover out of his nosepiece getting into me. It's uncalled for this early in the race."

Only seven laps later, Bud Pole winner Bill Elliott lost power in his Dodge and lost 13 laps before his Evernham Motorsports team could change the car's carburetor. He finished 34th.