Burton looking for more; Johnson & Gordon move forward; Va Beach driver beats Hamlin

 

A busy day at Richmond Internatinal Raceway today. Here's a litlte to get you started:

 

# Jeff Burton is having a season unlike any other he's had.

 

"We've consistently put ourselves in position to win races,'' he said. "I've been in the position to win more races this year than all of last year for sure. Most races we've consistently been running in the top five, we've consistently been one of the faster cars in most races. I think we certainly had a real shot at California. We certainly had a real shot at Martinsville. We definitley had a real shot last week (Talladega). We definitely had a shot at Texas. All those races I felt like, I don't want to say that we gave them away because we didn't give them away but if we had done a little better job, they were our races. We didn't do that. I feel like we're close (to winning). Having said that, we're 12th in points and ... we have (two) top-10 finishes. It's bizarre to run the way we've run and to post the finishes that we have posted. I've never been a part of this scenario where we run this well and we finish this poorly.''

 

To put Burton's season into perspective: He ranks fifth in laps led so far this year but his average finish this season (16.0) ranks 13th on the circuit. 

 

# Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon have talked (with Rick Hendrick as moderator) and plan to move forward after their incidents the last couple of weeks at Texas and Talladega.

 

Johnson said that the conversation was good and they're moving forward. As for if they'll need to race each other differently this weekend and maybe for a couple of races, Johnson said: "We've done this for nine years without any issues. Unfortunatley, we've had magnets on the cars the last couple of weeks, but we'll get through it.''

 

# Hendrick Motorsports announced that it had signed crew chiefs Chad Knaus and Alan Gustafson to contract extensions. Knaus said his contract goes through 2015, which is went Jimmie Johnson's contract with Hendrick Motorsports goes through. Gustafson's contract goes through 2014 with Hendrick Motorsports.

 

"Five more years of crew chiefing, I'm pretty sure I'll be about done by then,'' Knaus said. "Crew chief years are like dog years, so I'm thinking I'm about 97 years old, so I don't think I can go much more after that.''

  

# Thursday night at Denny Hamlin's charity race at Southside Speedway, Virginia Beach's C.E. Falk beat Hamlin with a short track bump-and-run type of move on the last lap to win. Said Hamlin on Friday about that: "The promoter in me loved that finish. That was perfect.  That's what I wanted to see. It's tough to say there was no disappointment because I knew I was going to win that race. I'd never won a race there.  .. I'm sure (Falk) is waking up smiling knowing he had Tony Stewart right behind him and me right in front of him, knocked me out of the way and got the win and beat Tony. It's a great story for him. I can't say I would be any different if I was in that same situation.''

 

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