Jeff Burton led 52 laps at New Hampshire International Speedway. Credit: Autostock

Burton begins Chase with solid top-10 run

LOUDON, N.H. -- If Jeff Burton was concerned about his Richard Childress Racing team stepping up as it entered its first Chase for the Nextel Cup, its performance Sunday in the Sylvania 300 didn't show it.

Though Burton has four career victories at New Hampshire International Speedway -- including leading all 300 laps in September 2000 -- racing is always a case of "what have you done for me lately?"

Sylvania 300 Results Pos. Driver Make 1. Kevin Harvick Chevy 2. Tony Stewart Chevy 3. Jeff Gordon Chevy 4. Denny Hamlin Chevy 5. Brian Vickers Chevy 6. Elliott Sadler Dodge 7. Jeff Burton Chevy 8. J.J. Yeley Chevy 9. Dave Blaney Dodge 10. Matt Kenseth Ford • Complete results, click here • Driver standings, click here Victory LaneKevin Harvick celebrates his Sylvania 300 win at Loudon Chase finishersGordon, Dale Jr. and Hamlin talk about the Loudon race Final lapsCars go crashing across the finish line behind Harvick Set backChase contender Jimmie Johnson slams into the wall damaging his car Tough racingKyle Busch crashes into the wall and takes a spin Early cautionKyle Busch involved in a spin bringing out the first caution Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

To that end, Burton's No. 31 Chevrolet led 52 laps Sunday and finished seventh behind race winning RCR teammate and new Chase leader Kevin Harvick. In the process he jumped from eighth to fifth in the standings after the first race in the 10-event "playoff."

The fact that Burton's finish was his 16th top-10 in 27 races -- more than twice as many as he's scored in either of the last two seasons -- and his most since 2001, was encouraging, but he refused to be drawn into any discussions about points, of which he's 64 out of the lead.

But Burton did agree it was critically important to start the Chase in a proper mode.

"I think it's important to run well," Burton said. "Any time you're running well, you feel like you can build on it [and] I think that's the main thing.

"It's important to run well and to get off to a good start [so] I'm happy with the way we ran. We ran really good -- we just got put in a bad spot."

Despite reports of an excessively tight racecar, Burton, who ran in the top 10 for 274 of 300 laps, denied it.

With a little less than 100 laps to go he seemed mired in sixth, where he ran for more than 55 laps, when the next-to-last caution flew at Lap 267.

"I ran the same the whole time," Burton said. "And running the way we were, we just got caught in a situation there where we couldn't afford to pit -- because we didn't know if we would have come out 20th and not get our way back up there -- and some other guys did.

"Scott [Miller, crew chief] made 100 percent the right call and all in all, if we had to do it all over again, I don't think we'd do anything different."

Burton slotted into fourth for a restart with 30 laps remaining, behind Harvick, Brian Vickers and Jeff Gordon -- who also opted not to stop. The next three cars, those of Denny Hamlin, J.J. Yeley and Elliott Sadler, took two tires and Tony Stewart and Dave Blaney, behind that group, were the first to take four.

Burton held the fourth spot until Stewart got by him in Turns 1 and 2 on Lap 287. His chance at a top-five went by the board when the final caution waved at Lap 294. The race restarted with four laps remaining and Hamlin and Sadler got by.

"Some guys got by us the last couple of laps on that last caution because they had tires," Burton said. "I'm disappointed with where we finished, but I'm happy with the way we ran.

	Credit: AP
	Chase Standings After Loudon (9 races remaining) Pos. Prev. Driver Behind 1. +2 K. Harvick -- 2. +3 D. Hamlin -35 3. -2 M. Kenseth -41 4. +5 J. Gordon -50 5. +3 J. Burton -64 6. +1 M. Martin -75 7. -1 Dale Jr. -81 8. +2 K. Kahne -110 9. -7 J. Johnson -139 10. -6 Ky. Busch -146 SUPERSTORE •   Jeff Burton 2006 Chase hat!

"We just lost our track position and never could make it back up. We ran well all day -- we just lost track position a couple times from guys taking two [tires] and some different stuff, but I thought we ran pretty consistent all day."

Track position was one of the things that troubled Miller -- but not terminally.

"We had a car certainly capable of finishing better than where we finished with it," Miller said. "We had a few things go on there, we lost some spots in the pits, what have you, that you just can't do in this day and age.

"But all in all, performance-wise it was a pretty good day for us. When it came down to it, better tires ended up carrying the day. We've just got to try to find the positives in this and build on it for next week."

Team owner Richard Childress returned to the racetrack from a hunting trip in Alaska in time for the race, and was thrilled at the result.

"The cars are doing great and we've got everybody just working hard -- we've just got to keep digging because we've got nine more to go," Childress said. "It was great that Burton's team came out and made that kind of a strong statement."

Burton jumped up three spots in the standings with his finish, to fifth, but was nearly fit to be tied when he was asked about it post-race.

"Y'all are looking at points -- I'm not," Burton said. "There's a long way to go, nine races, and I'm not looking at points just yet. There's a lot of racing to go and what I care about is how we run.

"If we run well we can build on it and I thought we ran well [Sunday]."

Burton acknowledged he dodged a major bullet when Jeff Green and Kyle Busch tangled on the frontstretch right in front of him. The accident eliminated Green on the spot and condemned Busch to an eventual 38th-place finish after he was involved in another accident.

"There was no give-and-take there," Burton said. "Nobody lifted and it was really close. It took those two guys out and we were really lucky not to be in it."

But he said the troubles suffered by Busch and former second-place points man Jimmie Johnson, who ended the day ninth in the standings, didn't even register with him Sunday.

"Listen, you guys are all worried about points," Burton said. "I'm not worried about points. I understand that's what everybody's looking at -- but we're not.

"We're paying attention to how we run and what we can do to get better. It's way too early to worry about that because we're 10 percent of the way through this thing and it's really early."

"We've got to go away from here looking at it as a successful day," Miller said. "It was not as successful as it could have, but we didn't have any problems and we're not carrying home a wrecked racecar -- and we did move up in the points -- so we've got to take it as a positive."