Jeff Burton might have never won the NASCAR Cup Series championship in his career but he has an achievement that nobody else in the competition has. At the Dura Lube 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway in 2000, Burton led every single lap to win the race. The feat has yet to be repeated in the Cup ever since that uncharacteristically cold September day in New Hampshire.
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Leading every lap might sound like a dominating win but it wasn’t. Bobby Labonte kept the pressure on the then-Roush Racing driver. Even Dale Earnhardt put up a strong defense when Burton attempted to lap him. The cars were slowed down by 10 mph due to the restrictor plates after a couple of drivers, Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin Jr., lost their lives at the track due to stuck throttle pedals.
Labonte was the pole sitter but Jeff Burton snatched it away on the very first lap and never gave it back. He knew that passing the then-Joe Gibbs Racing driver was going to be tough. “Had we ever gotten behind him it would have been hard to pass him,” Burton told ESPN.
Jeff Burton won New Hampshire in 2000 and to this day he's the last driver to lead every single lap in a cup race. https://t.co/75mBQ6yU5w pic.twitter.com/inEYSlm1iq
— Alexander (@AlextheAdm1ral) April 21, 2023
The JGR legend had a chance of taking the lead back with six laps remaining but it would have been a dangerous move that might have wrecked them both. Burton thanked Labonte for not taking the risk and the Cup Series champion said, “You race hard but you race clean.”
This feat was only done a couple of times before Burton’s New Hampshire run and on both occasions, the late great Cale Yarborough was the man behind the wheel. The first was in Bristol in 1973 and the second was in Nashville in 1978. No other Cup Series driver has repeated this incredible feat.
Leading every single lap of a NASCAR Cup Series race is the rarest of feats and it just proves that non-championship-winning drivers can also be legends of the sport.
