Burton Settles for Fourth

The No. 99 CITGO SUPERGARD team tried hard for its second win at "The Rock", but settled for fourth at the Pop Secret 400 Sunday. Burton started the race in sixth position, and it only took 24 laps before he sat in the top spot, and it only took 50 before he started lapping the field. He complained of feeling tight in the middle of the corner, so a routine pit stop on lap 70 saw the team make track bar adjustments while taking a fresh set of tires. When the field completed its pit stops by lap 75, Burton sat in fourth position.

Burton worked his way into second, behind Jeremy Mayfield, when a caution flag fell on lap 100. Burton's 14.92-second pit stop saw the team make air pressure adjustments while taking four tires. He exited pit road in the same spot he entered in, sitting second. By lap 140, Burton had inched back to first with Mayfield riding a close second, and just 15 laps later they had pulled away from the pack by five seconds. A caution on lap 157 saw the team take four tires and wedge adjustments in 15 seconds. Burton struggled getting out of his pit stall due to the closeness with the No. 94 team, and he entered the race in fourth position at the restart on lap 168.

Only seven laps later saw a third caution on lap 177 where the team made no adjustments to the car, only taking four tires. The 14.68-second pit stop saw Burton behind teammates Rusty Wallace and Mayfield when the race restarted on lap 182.

Almost immediately did the race see its fourth caution on lap 192 where Burton was sitting in second when the yellow flag fell. The team pitted on lap 194 and again made no adjustments and only taking four fresh tires. Burton lost one spot and left pit road in third position behind Mayfield and Dale Jarrett.

Burton complained of the car feeling tight, so a caution on lap 210 saw the team make air pressure and track bar adjustments along with taking four tires. The restart on lap 217 saw the CITGO SUPERGARD team in fourth position. After getting a few laps in with the new changes, Burton didn't like the setup and wanted to return to the previous setup, so a caution on lap 235 saw the team make air pressure and track bar adjustments to get the car back to where it was before the last stop. Prior to the caution, Burton was in fifth spot, and the restart on lap 241 saw the team gain a spot to sit in fourth.

Burton continued racing with leaders Ricky Rudd, Mayfield and Wallace, and he sat in second when a seventh caution was called on lap 257. The team made minor air pressure and track bar adjustments in 15.60 seconds and had Burton back in second when the race restarted on lap 264. He made his way back into first position on lap 266 and bounced back and forth with Mayfield for the race lead until lap 321 when the yellow flag again fell. A 16-second pit stop on lap 329 saw the team make wedge adjustments and take four tires. Burton restarted the race on lap 333 back in first position. A final caution on lap 349 saw the team take four tires and make air pressure adjustments to free up the car.

The restart on lap 353 saw the Roush Racing team in fifth position. Burton was able to move up one spot to finish the Pop Secret 400 in fourth spot behind race winner Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon (second) and Ricky Rudd (third).

"We did a nice job in the pits. We thought we had a good enough car to win today. We were one of the best two cars out on the track today with Jeremy (Mayfield), but we lost some track position on the last stop, which hurt us. You'll have good stops and you'll have bad stops and that wasn't one of our best stops, and we needed it to be that time. It was so hard to pass here, so I didn't think we could make it back after that. It seems like we're running well, we're just not finishing well."

Burton continues to hold third position in the overall Winston Cup points standings with 4,394 points. Points leader Bobby Labonte sits with 4,645 points followed by Dale Earnhardt (4,444). Jarrett (4,315) and Rudd (4,272) round out the top five.