With Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle stealing the spotlight during the first half of the Chase, Jeff Burton showed he will be a factor for this year's championship by winning Saturday night's Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Burton captured his second win of the year Saturday night, after leading twice for a total of 58 laps. The driver of the No. 31 AT&T Chevrolet not only captured the win, he also climbed up the points standings to move into second, just 69 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

This marked the third win at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Burton's long career and could not have come at a better time in the season. This team seems to be coming together when it matters most, while others continue to struggle.

Saturday night's victory was a total team effort for this Richard Childress Racing team. The over the wall crew seemed to gain Burton a few spots on pit road each time he came down for service. Crew chief Scott Miller made great calls all night to keep Burton out front in clean air and out of trouble.

When the leaders hit pit road for the final time with less than forty laps to go, Miller made the call for fuel only. With the rest of the field getting either two or four tires, Burton was able to stay out front and set sail in clean air.

"Scott made a great call there, we were best on old tires and Scott made a great call," Burton said from Victory Lane. "Obviously the 9 car (Kasey Kahne) was coming pretty hard there, but we were good enough when it counted.

"I keep saying this team will keep bringing our best stuff and we keep bringing it better and better each week," Burton added. "It's just a hell of a feeling turning into these victory lanes. It's just an incredible feeling."

In the first four races of the Chase, Burton had two top-5s and four top-10s. Saturday night's victory shows this team will definitely be a threat for the title, yet they have no plans of getting over-confident.

"We're half way, it's a long time to go, a lot of stuff is still going to happen," Burton said of the Chase. "Everyone wants to give somebody the trophy right now and it's just way too early. It's our job to put ourselves in position to go into Homestead with a chance. Nobody's given us a chance except for us. All of those guys have a tremendous amount to lose, we have nothing to lose. We're just hanging it out there and letting it happen."

This team has definitely made it happen and next week heads to Burton's home track in Martinsville, Virginia. If the No. 31 team can finish out this year with the consistency and stride they are currently enjoying, they might just earn the first title for Richard Childress since Earnhardt's last in 1994.

OTHER LOWE'S NOTES:

-        Carl Edwards finished 33rd Saturday night, after problems with the ignition system. The poor finish dropped Edwards from second to fourth in the series standings, now 168 points behind Jimmie Johnson.

-        Dale Earnhardt Jr. took another big hit in the points, when his right front tire blew on Lap 103. Earnhardt Jr. slammed the wall and finished 38th. His second bad finish in a row Junior is now 354 points out of the lead.

-        Matt Kenseth's Chase hopes took another blow when he was caught up in another wreck not of his own making. Kenseth hit the wall on Lap 194 and finished 41st. The driver of the No. 17 Ford Fusion dropped two spots in the standings - 11th - now 360 points out of the lead.