Jeff Burton has made a place in NASCAR history. He will forever be recorded as the last driver to win in the NASCAR Busch Series. Burton won the Ford 300 at the Homestead Miami Speedway as Anheuser Busch, the series sponsor of twenty six years bids farewell to the sport.
“It really means a lot to me to win the last race in the Busch Series,” Burton said. “I grew up wanting to be a Busch driver, that’s what I wanted to be. So it really means a lot to me to win the final race with Busch as a sponsor.”
Burton did so in classic style. The Virginia native started thirtieth and worked his way up through the field leading twice for a total of fifty one laps taking the lead for the final time on lap 175 as he passed Stephen Leight during the final caution of the race.
Burton inherited the lead as his teammate Kevin Harvick was put to the back of the field for a pit road penalty.
Burton, though leading the race restarted mid pack and battled through traffic holding off Mark Martin to pull away to a 1.718 margin of victory.
Martin, driving for Hendrick motorsports finished second, with Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, and Stephen Leight rounding out the top five
The win was the fifth of the season for Burton and twenty seventh of his career. By virtue of starting the event, Burton clinched the Busch series owner’s title for Richard Childress racing. This marked only the second time in series history that the driver’s championship and the owner’s championship were divided between two teams.
Carl Edwards of Roush Racing won the owners championship after the race in Texas, but the owners battle fell to RCR who ran the number twenty nine Holiday Inn Chevy with Burton sharing the ride with Scott Wimmer.
Victory lane was a busy place at the track, Burton celebrating his race win, Richard Childress receiving the owners championship and Carl Edwards accepting the drivers championship.
“I really have to congratulate Jeff Burton and Richard Childress Racing and they showed tonight how strong they can be”, Noted serried champion Carl Edwards.
“They did a great job winning the owner’s championship. They’re a good group to share this with.”
All involved acknowledged the contributions of Anheuser Busch as an era in NASCAR comes to a close.
In addition to the owner’s championship being determined, Pole sitter David Ragan was named rookie of the year.
Ragan racked up four top-five and nine top ten finishes on his way to claiming Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors. He was Raybestos Rookie of the Race eleven times in thirty five races.
The series will celebrate the season in two weeks in Orlando Florida for champion’s activities.
Next year title sponsorship of the series will change to Nationwide Insurance as the teams will meet in Daytona for the season opener
RACE NOTES
Stephen Leight notched his third top five finish of the season, finishing seventh in the championship standings is out of a ride. Robert Yates racing announced it is closing it Busch operation. Leight, one of the few full time Busch only drivers to win this year has no concrete plans for the 2008 season.
Germain Racing has acquired the owners points from the Yates organization and will field Mike Wallace in a Geico sponsored car.
Brad Baker, the former owner of Bristol motor speedway has bought controlling interests in Brewco Motorsports. Baker will partner with long time series owner Mike Curb to form Baker-Curb Motorsports and field Brad Coleman in the 2008 campaign.
JR motorsports announced that it has signed a two year deal to field Brad Keselowski in a Navy sponsored car. The team will receive support from Hendrick Motorsports.
NASCAR announced that Drew Blickensderfer, crew chief for the seventeen Ford driven by Matt Kenseth in the Busch Series, was fined $10,000 for illegal car height following the race in Phoenix. Kenseth was penalized with the loss of twenty five championship driver points and team owner Jack Roush was penalized with the loss of twenty five championship owner points.
The penalty almost cost the team a top ten finish in the season’s owner’s points. Kenseth, who fell a lap down early at Homestead rallied back to a top five finish to allow the team to finish tenth in points six points ahead of eleventh place Fitz Racing.
