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Sunday, September 2
Burton wins again at Darlington
Associated Press
DARLINGTON, S.C. -- The Burtons have Darlington Raceway all
figured out.
A day after his brother Jeff won the South Carolina 200 Busch
Grand National Race here, Ward survived a wild Sunday afternoon to
win his first Southern 500 and break a 53-race victory drought.
|  | | Dave Blaney (93), Bill Elliott (9), Matt Kenseth (17), Ricky Rudd (28) and Tony Stewart (20) crash in the second-to-last lap of the Southern 500. |
Ward joins Jeff as winners of Darlington's spring and summer
events.
"I guess it was a pretty good weekend for the Burton
brothers," Ward said.
It was also a pretty good weekend for Dodge, which won for the
first time at Darlington in 30 years and for the second time in
three weeks this season.
"I'm glad a Dodge won again," said owner Ray Evernham, who
runs Dodges for Bill Elliott and Casey Atwood. "I wish our Dodges
could win, but as long as a Dodge is winning, I feel like we're
part of that."
Burton made it through one of the craziest Southern 500s, even
tapping the wall a few times. He came from 37th at the start to
beat Jeff Gordon and Bobby Labonte and take his third career
Winston Cup victory.
Burton's last win was also at Darlington, the Mall.com 400 in
2000. This one, said Burton's car owner Bill Davis, was even
sweeter.
"To win the Southern 500 is right up there," Davis said. "It
rates up there with the Daytona 500. To leave here tonight with the
win is a really big deal."
Burton's not sure he's anything special at Darlington.
"I like the place. You always have to compromise, always have
to look around at what's happening. I like the race track and they
gave me a hell of a race car," he said.
Burton won the race under caution after a wreck two laps from
the end.
This hadn't been one of Burton's best seasons since switching
from Pontiac to Dodge. He had only five top 10s in 24 events until
Darlington.
And things looked bad for Burton here Friday. He needed a
provisional to make the field and was lost way back on pit road.
However, Burton's machine proved strongest of all, passing 20
cars over the first 30 laps, and kept on charging until the late
pass. Burton moved past Labonte as Jimmy Spencer, Joe Nemechek and
Ron Hornaday tangled in a wreck on lap 360.
"I don't know if I was the best driver, but I sure had the best
race car," Burton said.
After a red-flag delay of 8 minutes, 21 seconds to clean up
crash debris, Burton withstood the final shootout for his third
career Winston Cup win. It brought Dodge its first Darlington win
since Buddy Baker won the 1971 Rebel 400.
Gordon passed Labonte on the final lap for second. Tony Stewart
bounced off a last-lap pileup to finish behind Labonte. Elliott was fifth, followed by Jeff Burton, Ricky Rudd, Kevin
Harvick, Jerry Nadeau and Ken Schrader.
Almost everyone who started this race seemed like they had a
chance to win, no one more than Gordon.
He led 138 laps -- the most of anyone -- and was in front with 37
laps to go, but said he hit the wall in turn two when battling
Labonte for the lead down the stretch.
"I was doing everything I could to gain position there at the
end," said Gordon, who has five Darlington wins.
Gordon increased his Winston Cup points lead to 342 points over
Rudd with 11 events left.
"It's not over, not yet," Gordon said. "Most tracks we run
pretty good at and we can get the top fives that we need.
Hopefully, we can get a few more wins."
Dale Jarrett, rookie pole-sitter Kurt Busch and Jeremy Mayfield
also made runs at the lead.
Jarrett led three times for 53 laps, but went to the garage on
lap 280 with problems to his left rear tire.
Busch became the first rookie since the late Davey Allison in
1987 to win a Darlington pole and led 74 laps. He fell back,
however, after scraping the wall in turn four when his alternator
shut down.
Labonte, the defending Southern 500 champion, put himself in
position at the end. But Burton moved past him in turn one as cars
were wrecking in turn four.
"He had already beat me," Labonte said. "He was fair and
square as far as the pass. What he did was right."
Ward Burton's winning speed was 122.773 mph in a race slowed by
11 cautions -- five over the last 57 laps. He earned $181,435 for
the victory.
Robert Pressley had the race's scariest crash, slamming the
outside wall near the finish line and spinning to a stop. He got
out of the car, staggered to the wall and laid on the track until
an ambulance arrived. Pressley walked into the infield care center
and was taken to Carolina's Hospital System in Florence. A CT scan
of the spine and abdomen showed no damage, Darlington Raceway
spokeswoman Cathy Mock said, and Pressley would be released Sunday
evening.
Steve Park, who had qualified 34th, was still recovering from a
hard, frightening crash in Saturday's South Carolina 200 Busch Race
and remained in the hospital with dizziness.
NASCAR was also busy with some of the sports young chargers.
Midway through, the sanctioning body called Harvick and car owner
Richard Childress to its trailer. NASCAR also told Dale Earnhardt
Jr., involved in several bumps, not to hit any other competitors.
Earnhardt Jr. was caught up in the race's last crash.
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