Jarrett passes Burton late to win at Michigan

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Dale Jarrett ran down Jeff Burton with just four laps remaining in the Pespi 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday, and won his second race of the year.

Jarrett, in the No. 88 UPS Ford, finished 2.285 seconds ahead of Tony Stewart's No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac after 200 laps on the two-mile oval. He overcame a spin off Turn 4 just 11 laps into the race to score his 30th career victory.

PEPSI 400 • Results • Standings

"It was a great day," Jarrett said. "Thank God for a safe race and thank God for these guys on the crew. Todd Parrott (crew chief) is incredible -- who would have thought we'd be here after spinning out like we did?"

"It was a big point day for us, another solid run and we needed this," Stewart said. "As the day went on we just kept picking them off one at a time and we got back up there where we needed to be. We had some good pit stops there at the end that gave us the track position we needed."

Burton, who struggled with his overheating No. 99 CITGO Ford all afternoon, fell to fourth at the finish after being overtaken in the stretch by Kevin Harvick in the No. 29 Goodwrench Chevrolet for third.

"We had a really good car -- the second half of the race it was really fast," Burton said. "I'm proud of my guys and the engine department, too. We had a problem and kept putting water in it and I'm proud of my guys for being smart enough to do that, because without it we wouldn't have finished at all."

	Jarrett recovered from an early spin-out to get the win.

Mark Martin kept up his chase of Sterling Marlin for the Winston Cup championship by finishing fifth in the Viagra Ford; but he gained only 10 points since Marlin finished one position behind him in his No. 40 Coors Light Dodge.

"We fought hard for that one and ran pretty good at the end," Martin said. "I'm not positive about taking four tires at the end -- that was my call and Ben (Leslie, crew chief) wanted to take two. When you run fifth you shouldn't complain either way."

Marlin is unofficially 43 points ahead of Martin with 13 races remaining.

"We were better on the long runs (but) it just wouldn't go green when I needed it to," Marlin said. "Sixth place wasn't too bad, but we had a better car than that."

Jarrett's feat -- which was his third Michigan victory on the same date and his fourth at the track -- came 11 years to the day from his first career win in 1991 and bested his second-place finish here in June, when he fell one corner short of beating Matt Kenseth.

The seventh and final caution of the Pepsi 400 came with 16 laps remaining, when Derrike Cope hit the wall in Turn 4.

The leaders -- Burton, Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- chose not to pit; but Jarrett had an advantage because he took four tires in his final pit stop with 36 laps remaining.

	Steve Park spins and hits the wall, bringing out a caution.

"I felt like four tires was going to be the way to go, there, even though Michael Waltrip won the Busch race yesterday when he took two," Jarrett said. "The car was real good but I had to work hard, there. It was a great call. Todd and I think a lot alike, more often than not, and I knew I had plenty of time to come up through, there."

Jimmie Johnson in a Chevrolet, Johnny Benson in a Pontiac, and Jeff Green and Earnhardt Jr. in Chevrolets finished sixth-10th.

Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch were the biggest losers on the day, as each leading in the early going and then suffering engine problems. Busch's No. 97 Rubbermaid Ford blew up after 159 laps and finished 39th. Newman started ninth in the No. 12 ALLTEL Ford and looked like he might win his first race after leading 15 laps; but a dropped cylinder relegated him to 31st at the finish.

"We just dropped a cylinder -- I don't know what happened but it's just one of those things," Newman said. "It shouldn't have happened, obviously, (but) we had an awesome race car and the guys did an awesome job on the pit stops.

"But that doesn't do you any good when you're running on only seven cylinders at the end of the race."