DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The morning after winning one of the wackiest Daytona 500s ever, Ward Burton could take solace in the fact he won the race by being in the right place at the right time and not by doing anything stupid.

Sterling Marlin, however, always will remember how he threw away his third Daytona 500 victory by doing what he thought was the right thing.

	Burton wins his first Daytona 500, delivering for Dodge.

When Marlin climbed out of his Dodge Intrepid after the race had been stopped by a red flag in the interest of safety, he wanted to make sure the fender had not been pushed in on his front tire. Marlin had suffered the damage when his Dodge made contact with Jeff Gordon's Chevrolet on an aborted restart that saw defending Daytona 500 champion Michael Waltrip slide across the grass and nearly T-bone the pace car on pit road with six laps left in the race.

When a fender rubs a tire on a Winston Cup stock car, it's only a matter of time before the tire blows out. On a high-speed race track such as the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway, a blown tire could lead to a serious crash.

Sure, Marlin was thinking about himself and keeping the competitive edge his Dodge had enjoyed for most of the race, but it was also in the interest of the other competitors to make sure the tire didn't blow once racing resumed.

"After Sterling and Jeff Gordon got together in Turn 1, the right front fender on Sterling's car was rubbing just bad enough that he was probably going to cut down the tire," said Tony Glover, team manager for Chip Ganassi Racing.

"We couldn't take that chance and put him and everyone else in danger," Glover added. "We were going to have to come in one way or the other so we had Sterling jump out and check out the damage during the red flag."

Once Marlin unbuckled himself from the race car and climbed out to inspect the damage then pulled the fender away to clear it from the tire, he had just violated a rule that prohibits any one from any race team working on a race car during a red flag. When a NASCAR official in the pace car told NASCAR officials what had happened, Marlin was moved from the front of the field to the rear of the longest line on the double-file restart.

Gordon also was moved to the rear of the field after he pitted when the pit lane was closed following his incident.

	“	We couldn't take that chance and put him and everyone else in danger. We were going to have to come in one way or the other so we had Sterling (Marlin) jump out and check out the damage during the red flag.”
		—Ganassi team manager Tony Glover

"It's been an exciting 24 hours," Burton said Monday morning when his winning Dodge Intrepid was put on display at Daytona USA, where it will remain for the next year.

"To win NASCAR's biggest race is a real accomplishment for Bill Davis Racing. Looking over the tapes of the pioneers of the sport, Bobby Allison and Richard Petty and David Pearson and Cale Yarborough, they've made it into something that is big for us.

"The next race that we're getting ready to go to, Rockingham, is a big event to win, too. Any Winston Cup race is, but to be a part of history, what the veterans consider the Super Bowl of racing is special."

Because younger brother Jeff Burton has had more success in his racing career, Ward often has been overshadowed by his sibling. But Sunday afternoon, Ward became something that Jeff is not -- a Daytona 500 champion.

"It hasn't really sunk in yet, but I heard it was on the front page of the newspaper," said the unassuming native of South Boston, Virginia. "Once I see it, it'll probably sink in. I didn't get much sleep last night. We didn't get back to the room until about 12. I'm a little drained.

"I stayed in that wet suit (racing uniform) for about five hours. I didn't get out of that wet suit until about 9:15 at night. It's an awesome feeling, the accomplishment of the race team. Those guys kept telling me back at the shop that I wasn't going to be able to bring the car back home. They were right. Everything that needed to fall our way yesterday fell our way. We had some luck for a change. We didn't have any bad luck."

That allowed Burton to capitalize on other racers' bad luck and even self-imposed folly.

The victory has put Burton on a public relations whirlwind for the next two days, including a trip to New York for talk show appearances.

"We're excited about going to New York. It just shows how big the sport has come. We win a NASCAR race and we're heading to the most populace city in the country.

"I was thinking about it a little last night. With the tragedies from what those cowards did in New York, that's a fitting place for us to go today. I think I'll be more comfortable there than I would be in the hills of Virginia just because it's a good place to be right now. All Americans have been thinking about New York City."

Burton's trip to New York is far different that his usual day after Daytona 500 activities.

"I would be home today (if I hadn't won the Daytona 500) and I'd go to my office for a little while," he explained. "I'd go to one of the farms my wildlife foundation owns. We actually are getting ready to build a 9- to 11-acre pond that's going to be a fishery for some children, a shelter for waterfowl. I've got to go out and do some work on that, but I'm not going to be able to get out there this week. I'll go next week, but that's where I go to relax.

"That's me. I might get on my tractor a little bit, or I might work on some equipment. I've got to do some prescribed burning. People who are going to help me, I've got to lead them in the right direction or get on my tractor and do it myself if I've got the time."