Mark Humphrey / AP

Jeff Burton celebrates after winning the NASCAR race at Bristol on Sunday.

“I thought I left him enough room,” Stewart said. “I’m sure somehow it was my fault. I’m sorry I got in his way.”

The two are terrific friends off the track, and, ironically, are scheduled to appear together on Stewart’s Sirius Satellite Radio program on Monday night when Stewart is supposed to have his back waxed for charity.

Any anger between the two should subside before the show, but Harvick may have a lingering beef with Stewart’s spotter. After the accident, Harvick said he sent his spotter to apologize to Stewart’s, but the exchange quickly turned ugly.

“The first thing his spotter did was say he was going to whip somebody’s (behind) and if Tony didn’t do it, then he was going to do it,” Harvick said. “If his spotter wants to have a bad attitude about it, then we can all come down here and we’ll handle it.

“Nobody is going to have a good attitude about getting wrecked. I understand that from Tony’s standpoint. But his spotter was out of line and I didn’t appreciate it.”

Burton was the benefactor of all the action, sliding past Harvick and Stewart when the two made contact to move into second place. The wreck brought out a caution that led to the two-lap overtime sprint to the finish, with Hamlin now out front and Burton right behind him.

Hamlin’s car failed to take off on the restart, and Burton raced past him on the high side of the bullring with his teammates following all the way to the finish line.

“Harvick and Stewart got together there, and that opened the door for me to squeeze in,” Burton said. “When that happened, I viewed that as the opportunity. That was the door that opened. If we had any shot to win, then we had to jump through it.”

Busch, the series points leader and defending race winner, had a strong car most of the day but lost his power steering shortly after moving into the lead. Unable to steer the car as it seemed headed straight for the wall, he instead navigated it into a spin that allowed him to finish the race.

He wound up 17th, but retained his hold atop the standings and now leads Greg Biffle by 30 points. But it was the second straight race the power steering failed on a JGR car — Hamlin’s went last week in Atlanta — and Busch called for the team to find a new manufacturer on the steering boxes.

Dale Jarrett finished 37th in the final start in a points race of his 24 year career. The former series champion is retiring this season, and will race one last time in the All-Star race in May.

“Well, it wasn’t the finish I would have liked,” Jarrett said. “But I really can’t be too upset when you take into consideration the kind of career I have been fortunate enough to have.”