RACE REPORT.(Motorsports)

Barring major miracles, NASCAR's championship field is already down to eight drivers. Consecutive bad finishes at Loudon and Dover have all but eliminated Kyle Busch from The Chase. And a mediocre run at Loudon and a wreck-related DNF at Dover have virtually sent Kasey Kahne to the showers, too.

But look who is No. 1: Jeff Burton, the ex-Roush Racing star who occasionally wondered during the season if he'd even make the Chase in his Richard Childress Racing-prepared Chevy.

Burton snapped a 175-race losing streak (dating to Phoenix in fall '01) by winning the Dover 400 at Dover International Speedway. His margin of victory was about eight seconds, but that doesn't do justice to the late-race drama at the 1.0-mile track. Burton chased Matt Kenseth for the last 40 laps, running side by side or within a length of the '03 champion without serious contact. He finally muscled by at lap 395 and was fighting to stay ahead when Kenseth ran out of gas on lap 399. It was a marvelous show, as good a finishing scrap as NASCAR has seen in a while.

"I was giving it everything I had and Matt was giving it everything he had,'' Burton said after his 18th Cup win in 431 career starts, his first for RCR. "It was a great battle, a lot of fun. I didn't know if I was going to get by him. I had no idea we'd win the race. We were maybe a 15th-place car, but [crew chief] Scott Miller got it right at the end. I was dreading going back to the garage and looking guys in the eye if I hadn't won. They deserve to win and enjoy victory lane.''

Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle, rookie Martin Truex Jr., Bobby Labonte and rookies Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin also finished on the lead lap. (A late caution during final green-flag stops left many drivers lapped, including Chase-for-the Championship racers Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr.) After leading 215 laps-almost four times more than anyone else-Kenseth finished 10th, one lap down. Burton led only the final six laps; despite winning the pole, Gordon didn't lead any. "I'll kick myself if the championship comes down to five [lap-leader] bonus points,'' the four-time champion said. "Obviously, Ryan Newman [who started beside Gordon] wanted that first lap pretty darn bad.''

Burton's fifth-place at Loudon and the Dover win put him six points ahead of Gordon, who finished third and third. Kenseth and Hamlin trail by 18 points and previous leader Kevin Harvick is 54 behind after blowing up late. He and Martin (minus 75) are still within reach over the next eight races, but Earnhardt Jr. (102 behind) and Johnson (136 behind) can't afford a DNF or even another mediocre run.

Kahne knows it's over. "No more championship,'' he said after an early-race crash with Tony Stewart left him 182 points behind. "We thought we had a shot, but you can't have two ...