Burton wins one clean

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Sunday’s win at the Food City 500 was vindication for a career spent racing people the right way, first-time Bristol Motor Speedway winner Jeff Burton believes.

The veteran driver, never known as one to use his bumper to win races, was widely criticized at this race last year when he elected to race Kyle Busch clean over the final laps in the debut of the Car of Tomorrow. Burton didn’t apologize then, and he’s not going to now.

“We’ve run really well here, and we’ve put ourselves in position to win several times,” he said Sunday. “A lot of people questioned my move last year to not take Kyle out to win the race. I wouldn’t change it because that’s just who I am. I could have had a trophy in my case last year by knocking Kyle out of the way.

“Those things have a way of coming back, and I think that’s what happened today.”

While he was at it, Burton also defended the recently reconfigured race track, one that allows drivers to race on multiple grooves and doesn’t promote so much physical, over-aggressive driving that was prevalent in the past.

“I’m a huge fan of this facility,” he said. “I think it is so much better. I’ll give you, if you want to watch wrecks, the old track was better. But if you want to watch racing, this is it. I gave up a lot of spots today, but this track will let you do that. You couldn’t do that before because you couldn’t get that track position back.

“Now, when you catch a guy, you can go around him instead of through him. It’s so much better than it used to be. The racing, from my standpoint, is just incredible. The racing is just as hard as it used to be. It’s just better.”

Jarrett fizzles in finale

A 37th-place finish wasn’t quite what Dale Jarrett wanted when he announced Sunday’s race would be his last points race, but the former champion was gracious nontheless.

“Well, it wasn’t the finish I would have liked,” he said. “I’m able to go out with the best sponsor in the business in UPS, and I would have liked to have had a better day for them. But I really can’t be too upset when you take into consideration the kind of career I have been fortunate to have.”

Jarrett’s father Ned was the honorary starter for the race, while fans saluated him on the backstretch with a flip card salute that spelled out, “Thanks Dale.”

Harvick upset

Kevin Harvick took full responsibility for the late-race accident that took out Tony Stewart, but he was more upset than Stewart after the race. Harvick’s problem was with Stewart’s spotter.

“I told my spotter to go over and tell him what happened,” Harvick said. “The first thing his spotter did was commence to saying he was going to whip somebody’s tail (sic), and if Tony didn’t do it, he was going to.

“Tony and I are big boys. We can handle that. We don’t need somebody who doesn’t really have anything to do with anything get involved. That really, really ticked me off. I’m now at the point where I can talk about it, but when I got out of my car, I was more mad about that than I was anything. Tony and I will handle it.”

Gilliland optimistic

Second-year driver David Gilliland’s ninth-place finish not only improved his points standing eight spots to 22nd, it also gave the team hope it would attract a much-needed sponsor.

“This is a big confidence booster for everyone at Robert Yates Racing,” he said. “This is just what we needed to try and bring sponsorship in to both of our race teams. We need sponsorship, and a run like we had today can only help.”

Hornish survives

It was just a 29th-place finish, but it was enough for rookie Sam Hornish Jr. to remain in the top 35 in points. The standing is crucial since the next race, at Martinsville in two weeks, is the start of drivers inside the top 35 being guaranteed of a starting spot. Hornish’s finish gained him that one valuable spot to 35th.

“We came here to put ourselves in a position to be in the top-35, and we did that today,” he said. “I’m really happey with how the car worked today. I’m still learning how to communicate with my team, but sooner or later I’ll be able to tell the guys what changes need to be made.”

Not so fortunate is Roush Fenway driver Jamie McMurray, whose last-place finish cost him five spots in the standings, four points behind Hornish. Other drivers who will now have to qualify on time include Dave Blaney, Dario Franchitti and Kyle Petty.

Almirola wants more

Fresh off a career-best eighth-place finish, Aric Almirola is ready to kick Mark Martin out of the Dale Earnhardt Inc. U.S. Army Chevrolet. Not really, but he is anxious to get more seat time, especially after Sunday’s stellar showing.

“It feels awesome. To go out and knock the cobwebs off and finish eighth makes my job easy when the car runs as good as it did,” said Almirola, who is filling in for Martin in 12 races this season. “I am really proud of (crew chief) Tony Gibson and all the guys on this team. They rallied behind me all day. At some points we were really good and at some points we weren’t at all good, but they kept fighting all day.

“I don’t want to sit on the pit box no more! It is what it is. I get to race 12 races, and I’ll hopefully go get 12 top 10’s.”