Burton, though, with a strange set of circumstances ended up needing those directions to Bristol Motor Speedway's victory lane.

With 15 laps to go, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, and Denny Hamlin were shaping up for a three-way battle for the lead when Brian Vickers cut a tire on his No. 83 Toyota and slammed the turn 3 wall, bringing out a caution.

Stewart, Hamlin, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. stayed out as the rest of the lead-lap cars -- including Harvick and Burton -- dove to pit road for fresh tires. On the restart with 5 laps to go, Stewart jumped out to a lead before Hamlin caught him and drove past.

If Aerosmith was in town, they'd be belting out "Same Old Song and Dance" right about now.

Carl Edwards took his second Sprint Cup Series victory in a row Sunday afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. His win -- the ninth of the Missouri-driver's career -- at the UAW-Dodge 400 put Edwards into the points lead of the Sprint Cup Series for the first time.

Edwards also won last week's Auto Club 500 in California.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton rounded out the Top-5 in the second race of the weekend at LVMS to set new records for cautions.

Saturday's Nationwide Series event had a track record 13 cautions while Sunday's Sprint Cup event won by Edwards had 11 cautions -- one over the track record.

A few of the cautions saw NASCAR's biggest names involved in some of the day's biggest hits.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 8th-place Jeff Burton.

Driver: Jeff Burton -- South Boston, Virginia
Team: No. 31 Cingular/AT&T Chevrolet
Points: 8th (-491)
2006: 7th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 1 wins, 9 Top-5s, 18 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

Jeff Burton's most newsworthy event of the year didn't even come on the race track.

Over the summer, Burton's sponsor AT&T sued NASCAR for the right to change the brand on the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet from Cingular to AT&T. The issue, which originally arose over a grandfather clause in the contract for Sprint/Nextel to become the title sponsor of the Cup Series, was eventually settled after AT&T agreed to depart the sport after 2008 with the allowance of running the AT&T brand on Burton's car until that point.

For a few races though late in the summer, though, Burton's car was painted bright orange with no sponsors -- an indication of some severe problems NASCAR is having with growing the sport by alienating potential sponsors.

On the track, though, Burton scored his lone victory at the track that he scored his first career one -- at Texas Motor Speedway in April. A thrilling duel with former teammate Matt Kenseth sealed the end of the race that interestingly enough with all of Burton's sponsor troubles saw the No. 31 enter victory lane with a special primary sponsor of Prilosec OTC.

Aside from Texas, Burton's 2007 campaign was nothing other than typical Jeff Burton -- consistent.

Burton made the Chase and likely would have fared much higher in the final standings if he would have been able to skip Talladega and Kansas. Burton finished those events 43rd and 36th, respectively.

Finishes of 18th and 12th coupled with six Top-10s -- four straight to finish the season, nonetheless -- showed Burton had a mildly successful playoff run with plenty to build on for 2008.

The sign of Burton's Childress teammates Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick also making the Chase should be good for the whole RCR outfit in 2008.

I feel bad for Marty Reid, I really do.

Dude got shoved into a segment on ESPN2's NASCAR Now showing ESPN's impressive NASCAR coverage. Or, well, I hope he got shoved into it.

Before I rip the whole segment apart, let me allow Jeff Burton, ESPN's token driver voice for their coverage to do so as he did in the video:

"Well the first word that comes to mind is absurd. The first goal of racing is to be there at the end. This system would award people and reward people for doing things that actually would hamper the way they would finish the race," said Burton.

"So it makes no sense -- you used the worst example in the world at Talladega to expose a problem, when in fact, we don't have this problem at most race tracks. So you have to run toward the front, you have to run hard in order to be competitive at almost every race track with the exception of Talladega. So, in a word, I think it's absurd."

Amen, Jeff.

For me, this whole segment (with a nice after-touch of Judge Judy) shows why ESPN and NASCAR fans haven't exactly gotten along this season.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. may have lost what was his best remaining chance at a Nextel Cup race victory Sunday after blowing his engine with 52 laps to go in the UAW-Ford 500.

But his teammate Martin Truex Jr. and engine program partner Jeff Burton might have lost so much more.

The Dale Earnhardt Inc.-Richard Childress Racing engine partnership had seven cars on track Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway and only two of them finished under full power. Three of them actually finished.

Burton lost his motor off of turn four on lap 92 and 21 laps later Truex blew his coming into the tri-oval.

Burton knows that he can pretty much stick a fork in his title chances.

"Obviously, this about wraps it up for us for the championship. We will keep fighting," Burton said. "We will go next week and strap our boots on and go fight and see what we can make out of it."

Truex now finds himself 300 points out of first in tenth while Burton sits further back -- in 12th with a 331 point deficit.

Kevin Harvick also started engine trouble late in the event. With 44 laps to go, Harvick was sitting on pit road with the hood up, but his crew could do nothing to fixed what ailed his Chevrolet engine. He would finish on seven cylinders in 20th place, some 202 points behind race-winner and point leader Jeff Gordon.

New DEI'er Aric Almirola also finished with a DNF because of his engine.

Only Clint Bowyer and Paul Menard would finish without a hitch in the engine.

10th Seed Jeff Burton (10/1)
Points: 5,010
Bonus: 30
Wins: 1
Top 5s: 7
Tops 10: 12
DNFs: 2

11th Seed Kevin Harvick (12/1)
Points: 5,010
Bonus: 45
Wins: 1
Top 5s: 4
Tops 10: 11
DNFs: 0

Harvick fell to 14th one week early in the season, but other than that both drivers have maintained their position in the top 12 throughout the season. Still, if it weren't for the change in format to allow 12 drivers, Harvick would be sitting this one out.

Despite a dramatic win for Harvick in the season-opener at Daytona, this season has been more dramatic for the sponsors of these Richard Childress Racing drivers than for the drivers themselves. I don't expect either of their Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship runs to be dramatic either. Advantage: Burton.

Handicapping the Rest of the Chase Field
Gordon and Johnson
Stewart and Hamlin
Kenseth and Edwards
The Busch Brothers
Truex and Bowyer

AT&T: NASCAR is being "unreasonable and vindictive."

NASCAR: "NASCAR fans are not fans of litigation, and AT&T needs to do the right thing and honor the agreements that were made."

TGOM: " Nextel Sprint are hypocrites and NASCAR are greedy sons of bit*hes."

AT&T was once a worthy NASCAR Nextel Cup sponsor--when they were called Cingular. Now their money is no good. Well, their money is still good, but their logos aren't.

NASCAR spokesperson Ramsey Posten said that several paint schemes were approved for RCR this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, including a GoPhone scheme. RCR and AT&T say NASCAR didn't approve any they submitted for the Sharpie 500, including a GoPhone scheme.

I think I gotta believe AT&T on this one--I'm sure if there was actually an approved scheme, they'd be running it.

Instead, the #31 AT&T Chevrolet rolled off the hauler at Bristol Motor Speedway this morning sans any visible sign of the sponsor's logo. Logos have even been removed from the hauler and pit equipment ... team AT&T shirts have been left behind in favor of generic RCR shirts.

The Nextel Cup regulars will welcome themselves back to the 2-mile D-shape that is Michigan International Speedway this weekend for the 3M Performance 400. Last year's winner, Matt Kenseth, looks to pick up only his second win of the 2007 campaign at a track that teammate Carl Edwards took the victory at in June.

1. Matt Kenseth - He's due, and Roush Racing just never has an off day at Michigan or California


2. Carl Edwards - Cousin Carl will be good, but he's already in next year's All-Star race -- so he's happy.

3. Tony Stewart - Three-in-a-row is tough to do, but it is summertime and weirder things have happened.

When the heads of NASCAR skated through Saturday's Busch race at Watkins Glen without much incident, their sighs of relief were premature.

Juan Pablo Montoya and Kevin Harvick scuffled in turn one Sunday with about 20 laps to go after both had their days ended in a four-car incident.

Helmets were grabbed, shoves ensued, and tempers flared -- all over a big misunderstanding on behalf of Kevin Harvick.

Harvick was asked about what he and Montoya discussed by ESPN:

"I was talking about his kicking his ass because that's how I felt about it," said Harvick

On the restart, Montoya ducked low to block Martin Truex Jr. The block worked -- but a little too well.

Truex got into the read end of Montoya, loosening the No. 42 at the end of the straightaway. Montoya never regained full control and half-slid into Harvick on the outside. Harvick made contact with Jamie McMurray and Jeff Burton's No. 31 plowed into the rear end of Montoya.

Harvick then maneuvered his wrecked race car in front of Montoya's wrecked beast and contact ensued.

NASCAR returns to Indianapolis this weekend with the 14th edition of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. ESPN takes the television coverage reigns at 1:00pm/ET on Sunday.

1. Jeff Gordon - He's got four wins at his kinda-hometown track. Five would be a oval track record at the speedway.

2. Tony Stewart - Got the win in Chicago, Indy could be a good chance for the hometown boy to make up ground in the Chase seeding.

3. Jimmie Johnson - Started in top-5 last year, fell back to 39th, and then won. Can't count him out.