Burton steals win in Childress sweep

Jeff Burton raced past Denny Hamlin on a two-lap sprint to the finish Sunday to give Richard Childress Racing a 1-2-3 sweep at Bristol Motor Speedway, and deny Joe Gibbs Racing a victory after its three drivers dominated the race.

Burton scored his first win at Bristol, the first win of the season for Chevrolet, and led teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer across the finish line in the first podium sweep in RCR history.

“We did the little things right,” Burton said. “That’s the sign that this team’s matured. That’s the sign of a team that’s ready to take advantage of situations. I won’t lose sleep tonight because somebody says, ‘We had a faster car.’

“All I know is we’ve got the trophy.”

In sweeping the podium, RCR stole a race that was dominated by JGR drivers Tony Stewart, Hamlin and Kyle Busch. The trio combined to lead 372 of the 506 laps, but Hamlin’s sixth-place finish was the best of the group.

“It’s just a shame. We had another win taken away,” said Hamlin, who blamed a fuel pickup problem on the final restart as the reason the RCR cars passed him.

Stewart led a race-high 267 laps -- 10 more than he did in this event last year -- but again faltered in finishing 14th. Mechanical problems ruined it for him last season, but it was questionable strategy and contact with Harvick that wrecked his chances this time around.

Stewart was chugging along toward the victory, trying to hold off Harvick and Hamlin, when Brian Vickers crashed to bring out a caution with 11 laps to go. Stewart thought he should pit for tires, but was overruled by crew chief Greg Zipadelli, who wasn’t sure there were enough laps left to warrant changing the tires.

So Stewart stayed out -- along with Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- while everyone else on the lead lap headed to the pits.

Busch, the series points leader and defending race winner, finished 17th.

Dale Jarrett finished 37th in the final start in a points race of his 24 year career. The former series champion is retiring and will race one last time in the All-Star race in May.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton won the Formula One Australian Grand Prix after an accident-filled season-opening race in Melbourne.

Hamilton, No. 2 in last year’s drivers championship, started from pole position and avoided the mayhem behind him for his fifth victory in 18 GP starts. He finished 5.4 seconds ahead of BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld in second place and 8.1 seconds ahead of Williams’ Nico Rosberg in third.

Defending champion Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari ran out of gas as he entered the pits with five laps to go. He earned one championship point when stewards excluded Rubens Barrichello’s sixth-place for Honda because he left the pits while the exit lights were red. It was Ferrari’s only point, representing the Italian team’s worst season-opening race since 1992.

Only seven of the 22 cars on the grid finished the 58-lap race.

Defending Funny Car series champion Tony Pedregon raced to his first victory of the season and 37th of his career in Gainesville, Fla., beating Gary Densham with a run of 4.921 seconds at 315.27 mph in his Chevy Impala in the ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals.

Densham’s Impala finished in 4.924 seconds at 309.13 mph.

Tony Schumacher claimed his 43rd career Top Fuel victory by beating Brandon Bernstein with a run of 4.603 seconds at 325.37 mph and Jed Coughlin took his first Pro Stock win of the season and 39th of his career by outrunning Jason Line in 6.652 seconds at 208.07 mph in his Chevy Cobalt.

Matt Guidera earned his second career victory in Pro Stock Motorcycle by sweeping the season-opening race for bikes in 6.949 seconds at 191.54 mph on his Buell.