Burton passes Kenseth on final lap to win Nascar

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-04-16 09:12

Jeff Burton passed Matt Kenseth on the final lap to win Nascar's Samsung 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth on Sunday.

Burton overtook Jeff Gordon to move second with 14 laps to go and stalked Kenseth until turn two of the final lap when he raced low to pass his former team mate and collect his 19th career Nextel Cup victory.

"Matt's a hell of a driver," Burton, who has four top-five finishes this season, told Fox television. "We were quite a bit faster than he was. He held me off for 15 laps. That's just how good he is.

"We were really good on long runs. We got beat up on short runs. We got just what we needed. We got a long run and it worked out for us."

Burton, who led the race for just one lap on Sunday, climbed to within eight points of series leader Gordon.

"It's a long year," said Burton, who runs for Richard Childress Racing. "There's a long way to go. Certainly we've done a nice job to this point. But there's a lot of work ahead of us."

Mark Martin finished third, Gordon fourth and Jamie McMurray fifth.

"It's painful losing on the last lap but we really didn't have a car that could contend all day," said Kenseth, a member of Roush Fenway Racing. "If I had to do it again, I'd get beat the same way. I couldn't have done anything more."

The triumph marked the fifth straight victory by Chevrolet.



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