Burton Becomes First Repeat Winner At Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) _ Finally, a Texas two-step. <br/><br/>Jeff Burton passed Matt Kenseth on the final lap Sunday to become the first repeat winner at Texas, winning 10 years after he won the inaugural

Sunday, April 15th 2007, 5:13 pm

By: News On 6

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) _ Finally, a Texas two-step.

Jeff Burton passed Matt Kenseth on the final lap Sunday to become the first repeat winner at Texas, winning 10 years after he won the inaugural race.

Burton never led until he overtook Kenseth on the backstretch coming out of Turn 2 after more than 10 laps of trying to get past him. It was Burton's 19th career victory.

That denied Kenseth, who won the Busch race Saturday, a weekend sweep. It also ended a four-race winning streak by Hendrick Motorsports.

There had been 11 different winners in the 11 races since Burton won the first race at the 1 1/2-mile, high-banked Texas track.

Jeff Gordon led 173 of 334 laps and finished fourth, the fifth top-five finish in the seven races this season for the Hendrick driver. But he is 0-for-13 at Texas, joining Phoenix and Homestead as the only active tracks where the four-time Nextel Cup champion has won.

Kenseth and Mark Martin, who finished third after sitting out two races, are both former Texas winner.

Jimmie Johnson, the Hendrick driver who won three of the last four races, was knocked out of contention on lap 240 when he ran into Tony Stewart's sliding car coming onto the frontstretch.

Stewart, who won at Texas last fall, was sent into a spin when he was bumped while running side-by-side with rookie Juan Pablo Montoya.

When making a run on Busch only 13 laps later trying to get back on the lead lap, Stewart last control. Dale Earnhardt Jr. slowed down to try to avoid Stewart but was rammed hard from behind by Kyle Busch, who had the other win in Hendrick's streak.

Texas had gone longer than any other track without a repeat winner. When Richmond opened in 1953, there were eight races before inaugural winner Lee Petty won again in 1960.