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Thursday, March 1
Bet on Burton, baby!
By Jerry Bonkowski
ESPN.com
If only a few bad breaks had gone his way last season, it's conceivable that Jeff Burton would have been the 2000 Winston Cup champion, not Bobby Labonte.
Burton was in the championship hunt, dogging at Labonte's heels, virtually from the season-opening race in Daytona (which he finished second) until the end of the season in Atlanta. He ultimately finished a close (and career high) third in the season standings behind Labonte and the late Dale Earnhardt Sr.
|  | | Jeff Burton won at Las Vegas in 1999 and 2000. |
Burton racked up four wins in the 2000 campaign, rolling into victory lane in Las Vegas, Daytona (the summer Pepsi 400), New Hampshire and Phoenix.
But mechanical demons that reared their ugly heads at several key events along the way kept Burton from overtaking Labonte.
"We just had some bad luck at some races," Burton said. "If things would have worked out differently in maybe a couple of those races where we had problems, we may very well have finished a lot different in the final standings."
Nevertheless, Burton's third place finish in the Winston Cup standings last season provided a great deal of optimism on what was to come in 2001 for his No. 99 Citgo Supergard Ford.
Unfortunately, Lady Luck has once again stepped aside for Misfortune.
Burton has struggled in the first two races of 2001. He finished 19th in the season-opening Daytona 500 and was 37th in Monday's rain-delayed Dura Lube 400 in Rockingham, N.C.
In the latter event, a crash on lap 115 sent Burton to the pits for an extended stay as his team worked to repair some of the damage. While he ultimately was able to get back into the race, he nonetheless ended up 14 laps off the lead lap.
It's obviously not the kind of start Burton, crew chief Frank Stoddard and team owner Jack Roush had in mind when they kicked off what they were hoping would be their collective 2001 Winston Cup championship tour.
And while 34 races remain on the Winston Cup schedule, Burton knows that such a horrendous start -- he's currently 33rd in the standings -- can go a long way toward depriving him of attaining that championship trophy come mid-November.
That's why this Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is just what the doctor ordered for the South Boston, Va. resident. The last three Cup races in Sin City have been a Godsend to Burton, who followed up a second place finish in 1998 with wins in 1999 and 2000 (albeit in a rain-shortened 148 laps, rather than the planned full 267-lap slate). Burton also won the Busch race last season at LVMS, one day before he captured the Cup event.
Given his track record at LVMS, and despite the poor start he and his team are off to, Burton still has to be the odds-on favorite to win this weekend at LVMS. While he probably would settle for a top-10 result to help get his team back on track, a third consecutive win at LVMS would go an even longer way towards putting Burton and Co. right back in the middle of the Winston Cup ballgame for this season.
One other factor to consider: Weather has played a part in two of the last three Cup events at LVMS. Early March in the Nevada desert can be unpredictable. One day it can be sunny and 70 degrees, the next it can be in the 40s with torrential downpours (much like it was in last season's race).
Burton came into the 2001 season as one of the favorites to grab the Cup championship. His resume shows just how well he's been building towards that goal, being one of the most successful drivers on the circuit the past four seasons: finished fourth in 1997 (with three wins), fifth in 1998 (2 wins) and again in 1999 (6 wins) and third last season (with four wins).
Not only that, Burton recorded 15 top-5 finishes in 2000, earning taking home nearly $6 million in earnings.
It's no wonder that many racing experts and fans predicted 2001 would be the year Burton stepped up to the next level. Unfortunately, things haven't exactly started out that way. But that doesn't mean Burton's season is over, not by a long shot. If anyone can bounce back quickly, it's the triumvirate of Burton, Stoddard and Roush.
That's why, if you're going to plunk some money down at the betting windows this weekend, overlook his start thus far this season and Bet on Burton, Baby!
Pit Stops
While the inspiring victories by Michael Waltrip and Steve Park in the season's first two races have been the big stories, equally as significant are the Cup standings.
Veteran Rusty Wallace comes into this weekend's race in Las Vegas as the surprising points leader. He holds a slim 13-point edge (311 to 298) over Sterling Marlin and a 20-point margin over Waltrip (291 points).
The most surprising performance of the early season is the current fourth place ranking of Bobby Hamilton, followed by Park, Daytona 500 pole sitter Bill Elliott, Jeff Gordon, Ricky Craven, Robert Pressley and Joe Nemechek.
Defending Cup champion Bobby Labonte looks to make a move up in the standings from his current 15th place seeding heading into this weekend's race.
The two top rookies thus far this season have been Casey Atwood (17th) and Ron Hornaday (21st). First-year Cup drivers that have not fared so well thus far are fellow rookies Jason Leffler (39th), Kurt Busch (42nd) and Andy Houston (46th).
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