BRISTOL, Tenn. – Jeff Burton led Richard Childress Racing to a one-two-three finish at the Bristol Motor Speedway to claim his first win of the season in the Food City 500 and his first career win overall on the storied short track.

“It was a good day for us,” Burton said of his his 20th career Cup Series triumph. “We put ourselves in position. We did all of the little things well. That’s how you win these races. Rarely do you see a team that doesn’t run well win races.”

Burton was in contention throughout the event but led only the final two laps. He capitalized under a caution flag nine laps from the finish. Tony Stewart led at the time but opted to stay on the racetrack while Kevin Harvick, who was second, led a string of cars — including Burton — down pit road for fresh tires.

“There at the end the opportunity presented itself to make something happen,” Burton’s crew chief, Scott Miller said. “We weren’t going to win from where we were. Circumstances in those last five laps worked out to our benefit which was really nice.”

Once the restart came with five laps to go, Denny Hamlin, Stewart’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, jumped out to the lead. With two laps remaining Harvick, the first car with four fresh tires, moved into position around Dale Earnhardt Jr. and next set his sights on Stewart for second.

The two battled for the position, with Harvick dropping the left side of his car onto the apron, twitching sideways and getting into the side of Stewart’s machine. Stewart spun, bringing out the yellow and extending the event via green-white-checkered finish.

On the lap 504 restart, Burton's No. 31 AT&T Chevrolet jumped into the lead when Hamlin’s car sputtered due to a lack of fuel in the pickup. His Childress teammates Harvick and early race-leader Clint Bowyer slid by to take the top-3 spots.

“We’ve run really well here,” Burton added. “We’ve put ourselves in position several times. Those things come back to you. I could have had a trophy in my case last year by knocking Kyle (Busch) out of the way but those things have a way of coming back. I feel like that is what happened today.”

“Our Shell Pennzoil Chevrolet was pretty good all day. Todd (Berrier, crew chief) made a great call at the end to come in for tires. I just lost it there underneath Tony. I just made a mistake. We can take it for what it’s worth and just go on,” Harvick said. “I clipped the apron and lost the thing. It’s one of those deals where I was trying to get all I could and just went a little too far.”

Bowyer won the rain-shortened Nationwide Series event on Saturday, led 81 laps early in Sunday’s 500-miler and rallied to third in the closing laps.

“It was a great weekend,” Bowyer said. “I’m finally starting to figure this place out. We had a good night last night and had some luck with this. We just raced hard. I was excited for everybody at RCR. We’ve never been able to do that.”

Greg Biffle was the first car to take on only two tires under the last caution flag. He was the highest finishing Ford in the fourth position. Earnhardt finished fifth and despite leading at the restart, Hamlin slid back to sixth at the finish.

Kasey Kahne, Aric Almirola, David Gilliland and Matt Kenseth completed the top 10.

Stewart ended the event 14th after leading the most laps of the day at 267.

“I thought (that) I left him plenty of room. I was far enough ahead of him... I’m sure it was my fault... I’m sorry I got in his way,” Stewart said of Harvick.

Despite the rousing finish the race started under fairly calm conditions. The first 51 laps were run caution free before a competition yellow waved. Bowyer had taken the lead from pole-sitter Jimmie Johnson on lap 14 and held the position through the first exchange of pit stops.

Bowyer and Johnson traded the lead back and forth before Stewart’s Toyota took the lead for the first time on lap 97 after pit stops. Stewart was gaining on Bowyer under green flag conditions but lapped traffic riding in the low lane hindered his ability to make a move. Bowyer led the field down pit road under a caution flag when he finally gave up the lead. Pulling back on track, a number of cars dipping into their stalls held him up, dropping the 07 four positions. Stewart took advantage and led Harvick off pit road.

Michael Waltrip, however, did not pit and inherited the lead. Within five laps Stewart pounced, taking the position with his fresh tires. From that point Stewart and Hamlin swapped the lead and dominated through the halfway mark.

Hamlin was leading on lap 280 when the caution flag flew for a multi-car wreck in turn 1. Juan Pablo Montoya, battling Hamlin for a lap back, got into the race leader sending him up track into the Casey Mears machine. Hamlin suffered rear end damage after the contact and led the field to pit road and even won the race off, beating teammates Kyle Busch and Stewart. Hamlin was forced to dip back down pit road for fender repairs. He was relegated to 15th — the last car on the lead lap — on the restart.

Busch inherited the top spot but, less than five laps after the restart, spun his Toyota off of turn 2, damaging the front and rear of his machine. He reported issues with the power steering, which is the same problem Hamlin had at Atlanta last weekend.

Stewart and Harvick then swapped the lead over the next 100 laps. Harvick lead for 27 laps before Stewart reclaimed the position on lap 415. He held the position through lap 489 when the ninth caution flag of the day dropped for the slowed car of Brian Vickers. Vickers was the only car that did not finish the event.

Harvick was within a car length of Stewart at the time of the yellow. It was then that Stewart stayed on track while Harvick — running fourth to Stewart, Hamlin and Earnhardt — led a string of cars onto pit road.

Harvick emerged fourth and quickly moved around Earnhardt for while Hamlin made the move over Stewart for the top spot with four laps remaining.

Harvick moved to the inside of Stewart with just two laps left and the two banged doors repeatedly with Stewart getting sideways and slamming the outside wall forcing the green-white-checkered finish.

Former series champion Dale Jarrett made his final Cup start on Sunday, finishing 37th.

"Well, it wasn't the finish I would have liked,” Jarrett said. “I'm able to go out with the best sponsor in the business in UPS and I would have liked to have had a better day for them but I really can't be too upset when you take into consideration of the kind of career I have been fortunate to have.”

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