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Burton's great escape

Ward Burton misses multiple wrecks and benefits from a red flag to win the Daytona 500.

By JOANNE KORTH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 18, 2002

[Times photo: Bill Serne] Ward Burton dives onto his crew and supporters in Victory Lane. Daytona photo gallery

DAYTONA BEACH -- Ward Burton saw it all.

The smoke, the flames, the spinning car within inches of his front bumper. The desperate moves, the fading contenders. The race leader climbing out of his parked car on the backstretch for a little do-it-yourself body work.

Burton saw every bizarre thing.

And when it was over, he couldn't see anything.

Benefactor of what might go down as one of NASCAR's wackiest races, Burton won the 44th Daytona 500 before an estimated 190,000 at Daytona International Speedway.

That was when his line of sight was completely obstructed, by tears.

"I had to take an extra victory lap to compose myself," said Burton, driver of the No. 22 Dodge. "These races, the nature of them is such that you never know what's going to happen until the race is over."

Now there's an understatement.

In becoming the first Virginian to win NASCAR's most prestigious race, as well as its $1.3-million paycheck, Burton took the lead for the first time with five laps left. Was it a daring pass on the high banking? A mighty show of horsepower?

Not exactly.

His engine wasn't even running.

[Times photo: Jack Rowland] Click here to see a video of the start of the Daytona 500 taken from the photo tower on the starting line. You will need the free QuickTime Player from Apple to play the video.

Burton was second, waiting out a nearly 20-minute red-flag stoppage after several cars spun in the tri-oval during a restart on Lap195 of 200 -- NASCAR has no shame in its desire for green-flag finishes -- when the lead changed hands.

If only Sterling Marlin had kept his hands in his pockets.

Marlin, a two-time Daytona 500 winner, inherited the lead after the Lap195 restart when contact between him and Jeff Gordon sent the No. 24 Chevrolet spinning into the grass. During the red flag, Marlin climbed out of his No. 40 Dodge to survey damage, tugging at the right front fender to keep it from rubbing the tire.

Oops.

Marlin was penalized for working on his car during the stoppage and was sent to the back of the lead pack. Burton emerged with the lead and held on during a three-lap shootout.

Ford drivers Elliott Sadler, Geoffrey Bodine and Kurt Busch, plus 2001 Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip in a Chevrolet, completed the top five.

"I didn't know what to think," said Burton, 40, two-time winner of another prestigious NASCAR race, the Southern 500 at Darlington. "We really didn't have to fight for it those last two laps. It was pretty easy. We were in the right place at the right time."

Few could say the same.

Though cars have an aerodynamic package that is supposed to make restrictor-plate racing safer this season, Sunday's race was a wreckfest of drivers blocking faster cars to avoid being passed. In the final 250 miles, there were seven wrecks, including "the big one."

On Lap149, six laps after a restart, Kevin Harvick, in his first Daytona 500, tried to keep Gordon from taking second by sliding his No. 29 Chevrolet to the inside. Gordon tapped Harvick's bumper, triggering an 18-car melee in which Ricky Rudd's No. 28 Ford was batted like a pinball and Kenny Wallace's No. 1 Chevrolet burst into flame.

No one was injured.

Their cars were another story. Only 14 drivers finished on the lead lap, several in cars missing considerable amounts of sheet metal. Nine cars were too heavily damaged to finish.

"A battle of wrecks, that's what you'll have at restrictor-plate races," said Waltrip, who spun during a late restart. "We do that a lot here. The further it goes, the more you'll see. It gets wild. People get desperate at the end."

Always from the carnage emerged Burton.

He came within inches of adding one more to the total of cars collected in the Harvick-Gordon incident. Harvick's car was headed up the track toward the Turn1 wall when Burton made the split-second decision to turn his wheel hard to the left.

Good choice.

"I actually got turned sideways and he couldn't have been more than a foot in front of my nose when I went by," Burton said. "I was lucky to get control back. That was so close; I can't wait to see the replay. That was the pivotal point of our race, missing that wreck."

Burton also had a clear view of the Gordon-Marlin incident in Turn1, but avoided trouble by pulling to the high side and racing Marlin the rest of the way to the yellow flag. Marlin won by a few feet, but smoke signaled the tire rub that doomed him.

When Burton pulled into Victory Lane, his car gleamed.

"We didn't touch anybody but maybe twice all day," he said. "I don't think we have one mark on the car."

Now he has seen it all.

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