Jeff Burton proved the old adage that 'it is never over until it is over', especially at Bristol Motor Speedway, by heading a 1-2-3 for Richard Childress Racing on Sunday night after leading just the final two laps.
To underline the irony of the situation, those two laps came in a green-white-chequered finish, with the #31 Chevrolet ideally placed to take advantage of any mishap for those ahead of it.
Burton had put himself in position for a solid top-three finish when the caution flag flew for the final time on lap 497 of the Food City 500, setting up the green-white-chequered scenario, and was ready to pounce when the green flag flew. As the leader slowed right after the green with a suspected fuel issue, Burton streaked by to take the lead and held it for his first victory of 2008.
After opting not to take drastic action in an effort to win last year's race, the veteran felt justified in brushing off comments suggesting that he hadn't earned the win.
"A lot of people questioned my move last year, not taking out Kyle [Busch] to win the race but, you know, I still believe I did the right thing," he explained, "That's who I am. I'm not going to change who I am. Those things come back to you. Mark Martin taught me years ago that, if you give, you'll get more back than you ever have to give. That's what happened.
"I won't lose sleep tonight because somebody says 'we have a faster car'. All I know is we got the trophy. That's what we came here to do. We did what it took to get it.
Every win's different and unique. What I'm proud of today is that we did the little things right, and that's the sign of a team that's mature. That's the sign of a team that's ready to take advantage of situations. That's what I'm proud of.
"The ones that you win, that you really might not have deserved to win, everybody says 'you didn't really deserve to win that'. But they always forget the ones that you deserved to win, but didn't win. I can assure you, there's as many we looked back on and said 'golly, we should have won that and didn't' as it is like what happened to us today.
![Jeff Burton, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. [Pic Credit image.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/407272.jpg)
