Engine woes stop Bud bunch.

Dale Earnhardt Jr and the #8 Budweiser team ran among the top ten for close to 100 laps of the Checker 500k, but engine problems with less than 30 laps remaining dropped the second-year team out of the race.

Jeff Burton won his second race of the season, and his second consecutive race at Phoenix International Raceway, topping the field ahead of Mike Wallace, who scored a career-best second place finish, and Ricky Rudd, the championship challenger finishing a useful third.

Earnhardt's engine was damaged after a piece of debris launched through the radiator, causing the unit to overheat and eventually expire. Junior managed to bring the ailing car back to pit-lane, but the powerplant was only able to muster enough RPMs to sound like an old sewing machine.

"It's heartbreaking, but we had some debris damage the radiator and the engine just wouldn't last in this heat," Earnhardt sighed, "I guess I had something like 20 laps of warning - I could tell it was beginning to heat up and smoke a little bit. During the last yellow flag period [on laps 270-274], one of the cars behind us radioed that we were leaking fluid, but we really couldn't see anything. We weren't that concerned right then, but it was pretty clear we had a problem when everyone blew past us pretty easily."

Starting deep in the field, from 30th position, Junior gradually made his way through traffic, moving into the top 15 in less than 50 laps, and then used a quick pit-stop by the Bud team to climb into the top ten on lap 134. He stayed among the lead pack until another pit stop on lap 203, when the Bud car entered the pit area, stalled and would not re-fire until the crew pushed it down the pit-lane. The long stop cost the team eight positions, but it remained near the top 15 until the broken engine dropped it out of the race for good on lap 287.

"The car was good early on, but it just seemed like it wouldn't turn," Earnhardt recalled, "It was tight and I just couldn't get the front end to co-operate. It seemed like when we'd make changes [at pit-stops], it just wouldn't help the car like we hoped it would. We were pretty strong early on, and we could keep up with the lap times of the leaders, but we just didn't have the combination to pass a lot of people."

The early exit dropped Earnhardt Jr to seventh position in the Winston Cup point standings, falling one spot from his pre-race sixth. With four races remaining in the season, however, he is still less than 200 points behind fourth-placed Dale Jarrett.