Jeff Burton finally claimed the victory that he had been so close to for much of the 2006 season with a fine win in Sunday's Dover 400 at the aptly named 'Monster Mile'.

The second race in the 2006 Chase for the Nextel Cup saw the pressure get to several of the ten Chase drivers and their teams, but not Burton, who passed long time race leader Matt Kenseth with six laps remaining following one of the best battles seen all year long.

With rain threatening the one-mile Dover International Speedway throughout the 400-lap event, Burton finally crossed the finish line just minutes before a downpour drenched the concrete circuit completely but even though the skies overhead were permanently dull, the battle for the lead between Kenseth and Burton was enough to light up even the darkest afternoon.

Although Burton's victory, his first in Cup competition since October of 2001, was tremendously popular there was no denying that Kenseth had the best car on the day, having taken the lead for the first time on lap 74 and then heading the field for a total of 215 laps.

Ten caution periods kept shuffling the order as different teams employed different fuel and tyre strategies but even though Elliott Sadler, Reed Sorensen and Greg Biffle were able to lead with a degree of comfort at various times during the middle portion of the race Kenseth was always able to find his way back to the front.

Not even a penalty for pitting outside his box during the sixth caution period of the day shortly before the half way mark hindered Kenseth for long and when he assumed the lead during a cycle of green flag pitstops on lap 264 the race for the win looked done and dusted.

Kenseth kept his lead during the next caution period thanks to a brave fuel mileage gamble by his #17 Roush Racing team and even though he was on older tyres than most of his closest rivals Kenseth was able to build enough of a lead following a lap 327 restart to make things look safe.

Kenseth's freshly-tyred pursuers, led by Burton at this point thanks to an excellent stop from the #31 Richard Childress Racing crew, didn't get around the handful of other lead lap cars that took the same fuel and tyre strategy as Kenseth until Kenseth was nearly half a straight to the good.

Burton passed Kurt Busch for second spot with a little over 40 laps remaining and set about whittling down the gap between him and the leader. By lap 370 Kenseth and Burton were together and with Burton continuously diving to the low line and Kenseth clinging to the high line the two began a battle that would last for more than 20 laps.