 | New England 300 | | | | | |  | |
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Burton is the best situated to take advantage of his ninth place, which came after he recovered from spinning out midway through the event. It was his third consecutive top-10 finish. Burton moved to 10th in the standings with his first three straight top-10 runs since the end of the 2001 season.
Jarrett, after winning the second race of the season, had fallen to 29th in the standings after he scored DNFs in five of the previous nine races. But after marshaling his fuel well enough to finish seventh Sunday, he was thrilled to gain his second top-10 finish in his last three starts and his fifth of the season.
He credited crew chief Shawn Parker with the strategy calls that finally gained them track position after they were forced to start 29th when Bud Pole Qualifying was rained out.
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| Dale Jarrett: Two top-10s in the last three races |
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Their strategic play didn't pay off until the final 100 laps, when Jarrett first made it into the top-10, but he made it pay off.
"We made the car better throughout the day and it actually drove pretty good there at the end when we had two tires on it," Jarrett said. "I couldn't run as hard as I would have liked at the end, because I had to save fuel so much, and you have to stay out of the gas (pedal) to do that.
"We knew track position was such an issue, that that was really our only chance of salvaging a really good finish out of the thing -- to stay out on the race track and save as much fuel as we could."
Jarrett worked up as far as fourth on lap 240, but had to soft-pedal his car over the final 50 laps to save fuel. That was frustrating, but the finish salved his pain to a great degree.
"I wanted to race those guys, but just couldn't do it (but) it worked out well," Jarrett said. "It was a great run and great pit strategy. Shawn did a really good job of calling the race and adjusting on the car."
 | VIDEO CLIPS |  | Andretti spins just after the green flag
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| | |  | Mike Wallace hits hard on the backstretch
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| | | | |  | Hear from the top five finishers at Loudon
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Park took advantage of a Chevrolet that was drastically different from the one that had trouble getting out of its own way in practice Saturday.
Team manager Bobby Hutchens said crew chief Mike Beam and the team took the car apart from the end of the day Saturday until they finished it Sunday morning and Park was well equipped to take advantage of it.
"The guys did a great job calculating the fuel mileage and we got our last set of tires and we could make it on gas," said Park, who made it as high as third, also with 60 laps to go. "Track position was so hard to keep, and guys were being aggressive on restarts; doing whatever they could to try to gain positions.
"We're kind of building this team up to where it needs to be (and) this just raises your confidence. I was running third once when the caution came out and I called Richard (Childress, team owner) on the radio. I told him this was the first time I've been able to see the pace car in about a year and half."
Team co-owner Len Wood had figured Rudd had enough gas to make 299.7 laps -- and when Rudd's Ford gasped its last breath going into Turn 1 at the start of lap 300, Rudd knew the prediction was correct.
"I feel a little disappointed we didn't finish eighth, but on the other hand, 12th isn't bad, either," said Rudd, who scored his fourth consecutive top-15 finish and moved to 21st in the standings as a result. "But to have to pull over to the curb and watch everybody pass you (hurts). I lost all of those positions coming from Turn 4 to the start/finish line."
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| Ricky Rudd: Four straight top-15 finishes |
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Rudd, who used a brand new car that had never been tested, was plenty racy over the last 60 laps in the race, and ultimately felt that cost him.
"I knew it was gonna be close," Rudd said, "But after I was racing Steve Park and had Dale Jarrett in front of me -- coming back to me -- I got the information (on conserving fuel).
"But it was like 15-20 laps to go, about starting to save fuel. Had it been maybe a little earlier, I might have been able to save a little bit more but I didn't know. I went after Jarrett pretty hard and when I did that probably didn't help any."
Jarrett, who picked up one spot in the standings, to 28th, was just a little bit more capable than Rudd of making it to the finish, but saw a bright side to it.
"I ran out of fuel coming to get the checkered flag," Jarrett said. "By the time I got to the backstretch it had cut off, so maybe our luck is turning around a little bit."
Park, who had two Bud Poles in the last quarter of the season, also knows better days are coming, particularly after his Richard Childress Racing teammates Kevin Harvick and Robby Gordon finished second and fifth, respectively.
"Three RCR cars finished in the top 10 and that's great," Park said. "To come back to New Hampshire and do this is special. I've won a lot of races here in the Modified cars and Busch North so this is a big step to turn our season around -- we're making strides and that's all we can do."
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