Race Reaction, Bank Of America 500: Burton Comes Alive

Does the name Ned Jarrett mean anything to you? If it does, it’s more likely that you know because of his works as a broadcaster, and you’re familiar with the story of Ned calling the race on TV the day his son Dale Jarrett won the Daytona 500. What you may not know is that Ned was a fine racer in his own right from 1950 to 1965, winning 50 races and 2 Cup championhips.

He was nicknamed “Gentleman Ned” for reasons you might imagine. In a day where fender banging and fighting were a little more prevalent, Ned wouldn’t do it. If he couldn’t beat you with his car, he wouldn’t beat on your car with his car.

Ned has a modern-day equivalent. His name? Jeff Burton.

Burton may be considered by many to be one of the more influential drivers in NASCAR today, particularly on matters of safety. Because J.B. runs clean, he commands a respect perhaps only eclipsed by Mark Martin. Believe it or not, I see Dale Earnhardt Jr. as being more like these two than his dad, and if you’ll notice, Junior is using that respect to speak out a little more, for example, his contention that NASCAR cheated Regan Smith out of a win at Talladega with wishy-washy “yellow line” rule. Dale Jr. is calling for the rule’s elimination.

I digress. Back to Burton, I must admit that here on this blog, I’ve been a bit critical of the 41-year-old, because I felt that he lacked the fire, the desire to win. He proved me wrong last night.

From Jeff Burton I saw more passion in his driving, a fire in his belly that suggests that he understands that he has the best shot he’s ever had at winning a championship. True to form, he hung around the front for the bulk of the race, and ultimately zipped past Greg Biffle to win the Bank Of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte.

Burton got stiff challenges from Biffle and Jimmie Johnson after capturing the lead. For a brief moment, it looked Johnson wsa going to catch the Virginian, but Burton did a skillful job of holding the defending champ off. It wasn’t long after that we saw Johnson beginning to fade, fighting a loose car in the turns and near-misses on two different occasions. Johnson eventually finished 6th.

Carl Edwards’ detractors were treated to a good night. We’ve seen “Flippper” have these races before, where his car’s off, the crew’s off and it’s just a disaster. Some will call this karma, others will call this Kevin Harvick succeeding at getting in Edwards’ head. Whatever you call it, you can call thisa blow to his title chances. This will also be a night Dale Jr. and Matt Kenseth would rather forget.

The B of A 500 proved a resurgence for Kyle Busch. For Shrub, this was the best chase finish he’s had this year. Kasey Kahne once again proved a knack for running well at Charlotte, with a vindcating 2nd place finish. Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle and Brian Vickers also had long runs up front along with Jimmie Johnson before falling off for various reasons.

In fact, I thought for a while that Vickers, Gordon, or Jamie Mc Murray would end victory droughts at times through the night. Tire failures ere a big part of the problem last night, and I’ll once again be looking for perhaps some drivers or fans to question Goodyear on this. I’m not suggesting the tire maker was at fault, but it certainly looks to me like the CoT has proven a great challenge for Goodyear. I’m not suggesting shoddy workmanship, but that tire troubles are an unintended consequence of rushing the new car out in the field.

Jimmie Johnson still holds an unquestioned lead in the standings, but once again, Jeff Burton and Greg Biffle have risen through the ranks to demonstrate that no one’s mailing the Cup in to the two-time defending champion.

It wasn’t my favorite race of the year, but I must say that passion from Jeff Burton suits him well and I look for more if as the Chase winds down.