Sports: W. Burton regains his groove

Burton, stuck in a slump since winning the season-opening race, found a groove to drive in, avoided the accidents caused by a hazardous racing surface and patiently worked his way through the field at New Hampshire International Speedway on Sunday.

Burton started 31st in the New England 300 and assumed he had little hope of snapping his streak of poor finishes on a track that has never been easy to pass on by overtaking Matt Kenseth with 10 laps to go and beating Jeff Green to the finish line by more than three seconds.

"I knew if we stayed out of trouble we could have a decent run, but obviously I didn't expect this," Burton said. "We ran good all day and we didn't break and that's what's been killing us all year."

Burton has been awful since winning the season-opening race -- he came to New Hampshire with two other top-10 top finishes and had finished 33rd or worse in six of the past seven races.

But he never had trouble getting his No. 22 Dodge around the slippery surface in turns 3 and 4 -- where five of the 14 cautions began because cars slid out of the groove.

"It took me three-to-five laps to get any grip at all," Burton said. "The track has always been like that. "I tried to stay on the inside groove on both ends because that's where the grip was at."

Burton was in second place when Dale Earnhardt Jr. brought out the final caution by hitting Todd Bodine and spinning with 14 laps to go.

Kenseth, who had passed Dale Jarrett for the lead three laps earlier, had been pulling away from the field before the final yellow period. The race went green with 12 laps to go, Kenseth cut his right rear tire, and Burton had no trouble getting past him two laps later.

Green was never close enough to run Burton down and settled for a career-best second-place finish.

Jarrett finished third, then his Ford failed post-race inspection because his car was about an eighth of an inch too low.

Rusty Wallace was fourth, followed by rookie Ryan Newman, Todd Bodine, Robby Gordon, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick and Elliott Sadler. Kenseth had to pit after losing his tire and finished 33rd.

The race was marred by poor track conditions even though owner Bob Bahre spent $200,000 on new pavement to improve racing conditions.

Drivers believed the track surface, which showed signs of coming apart during Saturday's final practice session, began to split early in the race.

Sadler spun in Turn 4 on Lap 60 and Kyle Petty hit the wall there on Lap 106.

Drivers complained on their radios about the slick surface and gravel popping off their fenders every time they exited Turn 3 and went through Turn 4.

"The track has fallen completely apart, I mean, there's nothing but gravel out there," radioed Jeff Gordon, a three-time winner here.

"They need to sweep it or something because the groove is completely changing and moving lower and lower. The apron is the only place we can race."

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