Burton ends Busch skid with victory

Jeff Burton passed Matt Kenseth with 20 laps remaining Saturday in Hampton, Ga., and raced away to his first NASCAR Busch Series victory in four years.

Burton is a regular with Richard Childress Racing in the Nextel Cup Series and only a part-time performer in Busch. He beat runner-up Kasey Kahne, who won last week in Las Vegas, to the finish line by 1.42 seconds – nearly half the final straightaway on the 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway oval – to take the Nicorette 300.

It was Burton’s 21st Busch win but his first victory of any kind since he won at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., in October 2002 while driving for Roush Racing. The most recent of Burton’s 17 Cup wins came at Phoenix in October 2001, also for Roush.

After getting a hug from former Roush teammate Kenseth in Victory Lane, Burton said, “He’s still a very good friend and he felt bad for me the last few years. It’s a pleasure to finally get something done.

“You question yourself. You question everything. But I’m proud of myself. I stayed focused through all of it,” added Burton, who will race on the same track today in the Golden Corral 500. “We’re working really hard and trying really hard to get back to the top.”

Blown right rear tires brought out three of the six caution flags in the race, with defending race winner Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman all seeing their cars torn up badly by the blowouts. A Goodyear spokesman said the problems were caused by a combination of wear and failure to have the cars balanced properly.

Kahne checked out his right rear tire when he got out of his Dodge.

“It’s all torn up,” he said. “I tried waiting for a while and let my tires stay cool for a little bit and let Jeff and Matt get out front and race. Then I caught (Jeff) and, by the time I got there, I wore my tires out.”

Cup regulars have won all five Busch races this season.

The No. 21 RCR Chevrolet that Burton drove Saturday has finished in the top four in each of the Busch races this season with three different drivers. Rookie Burney Lamar ran second in it at Daytona, Burton was fourth at California and Kevin Harvick was third both in Mexico City and Las Vegas.

Lamar finished eighth in another Childress entry and Harvick was 11th in his own car on Saturday.

California winner Greg Biffle was third, followed by Kenseth, who fell out of contention after losing the lead, J.J. Yeley, who survived bouncing off the wall twice during the race, and Jason Leffler, the top finishing Busch regular.

Formula One

At Sepang, Malaysia, Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella had the fastest qualifying time for the Malaysian Grand Prix and an engine change spoiled Michael Schumacher’s bid to set the Formula One pole position record.

Fisichella recorded the fastest time of 1 minute, 33.840 seconds. Ferrari’s Schumacher was fourth fastest in a time of 1:34.668, but will drop on the starting grid because he changed engines after the morning practice session.

Schumacher, a seven-time world champion, was tied with Ayrton Senna on 65 pole positions after he led a Ferrari 1-2 on the starting grid at last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

It was Fisichella’s third pole position of his career. He had the pole at the Australian GP, which he went on to win to open the 2005 season.