Jeff Burton failed to win a championship when he was anointed NASCAR's next big star, a guy everyone thought would challenge for multiple titles.

He couldn't win one years later, when, after years of mediocrity, he suddenly found himself back in the mix.

A win Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., rocketed Burton onto Jimmie Johnson's bumper with five races to go to decide the championship, and Burton is convinced he's as capable of winning a title now as he was when he was a young hotshot.

"No one's ever proven to me why you can't do at 41 what you could do at 23," Burton said. "We're lucky to be in a sport that you can be successful in your 40s. You can convince yourself you're too old to do it. Trust me, a lot of people will try to convince you you're too old to do it.

"But with age comes a lot of advantages, too. And we'll try to take those advantages every chance we get."

Burton's peak started 11 years ago, when he started a string of five consecutive multiple-win seasons. In that period, he notched 17 victories and 102 top 10 finishes while slowly moving up in the standings.

He finished fifth in the standings twice, including his six-win season in 1999. He would moved up to third in the final points the next season, and went into 2001 as the prohibitive favorite to win his first Cup title.

But Dale Earnhardt died on the final lap of the season-opening Daytona 500 that year, and many people believed it adversely affected the safety-conscious Burton. He became a proponent of industrywide improvements, and for the next several years became more known for his stances on safety than his on-track performance.

The wins dried up -- he didn't reach Victory Lane from 2002 through 2005 -- and left longtime car owner Jack Roush for a fresh start with slumping Richard Childress Racing.

Burton has proven that the past three seasons, steadily becoming relevant again.

• Japanese Grand Prix: Renault's Fernando Alonso won in Omaya in a race that featured a collision between championship rivals Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa on the second lap. Both leading drivers received pit drive-through penalties, and while Ferrari's Massa recovered to finish eighth and earn one championship point near the end of the race, McLaren's Hamilton finished out of the points in 12th. Hamilton's championship lead was cut from seven to six points with two races remaining this season, while Ferrari moved six points ahead of McLaren in the constructors' standings.