After posting a disappointing qualifying effort during Friday's time trial session, Jeff Burton rebounded by driving the No. 31 AT&T Chevrolet to an eighth-place finish in Sunday's Best Buy 400 at Dover International Speedway.

The strong run was Burton's third consecutive top-10 finish and ninth overall this season. Although current points leader and eventual winner Kyle Busch padded his lead over Burton, the 40-year-old driver maintained the second position in the NASCAR Cup Series championship point standings and currently sits 142 markers out of the top spot.

The 20-time Cup Series winner started the 400-mile event 38th and captured five positions before an 11-car incident took place on the “Monster Mile's” backstretch. The lap 17-melee forced NASCAR to display the red flag for just over 16 minutes in order to clean up the debris. Requiring more grip to turn better through the corners, Burton visited pit road once the red flag was rescinded. Crew chief Scott Miller called for air pressure adjustments to the four fresh Goodyear tires that were bolted on to the AT&T Chevy and once the green flag waved again, Burton was scored 22nd.

Although Burton drove a loose-handling machine for the majority of the race, the South Boston, Va., native continued to climb the leaderboard and was eighth by the halfway point of the 400-lap contest.

Only one caution period slowed the second half of the event, but two green flag pit stops afforded Burton and company the chance to make adjustments in hopes of tightening up the bright orange machine. Unfortunately, when the veteran driver returned to the racing surface after the day's final stop, he was scored ninth and one lap down to the leader.

Burton spent the remaining laps grappling with a machine that had no rear grip but still picked up one spot and moved up to eighth before the checkers flew.

Busch captured his fourth victory of the season and beat second-place finisher Carl Edwards by a margin of four seconds. Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top-five finishers.

Burton's Richard Childress Racing teammates Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick didn't fare too well in the first of two visits to the “Monster Mile.” Bowyer suffered a broken shock mount on lap 213 while Harvick became a victim of circumstance in the lap 17-melee. Both teams worked extensively on their machines throughout the event and were running at the end. Ultimately, Bowyer finished 36th and Harvick finished 38th.

Next up for Burton and the AT&T Racing team is the Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway. Live coverage of the event will be televised on TNT Sunday, June 8 beginning at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The race will also broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 14th points-paying race on the 2008 NASCAR Cup Series schedule will be telecast live on SPEED June 6 at 3:30 p.m. EDT. MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio will provide qualifying updates.

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