Sports: Bright spot in bad year

Sunday night in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Burton used the oldest car in his stable to run away from the field on the final restart on Lap 341 to earn his first victory of the season. Burton outdistanced Kevin Harvick by 3.19 seconds to win his second Coca-Cola 600 in three years.

In a move similar to that of Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, Burton's Roush Racing crew sprinted across the track and climbed the fence and pumped their fists to the crowd.

"We never gave up," Burton said. "This team hasn't quit. It's been a tough year, but this was a great night for us. We need to do more of this."

The odds seemed stacked against Burton.

He began the season with seven consecutive finishes outside of the Top 15 before a third place April 8 at Martinsville. One of his biggest problems has been figuring out the harder Goodyear tires the Winston Cup teams use this year.

None of that showed Sunday night.

Burton, who started 18th, used a caution flag brought out by Bobby Labonte's spin in Turn2 to gain the lead when he stayed on the track, forgoing the opportunity to get four fresh tires, as most of the leaders did.

"We weren't good on the new tires," Burton said. "When the yellow came out, I said to (crew chief Frank Stoddard), 'You know what we got to do.' We could go with anybody after 15 laps on new tires, but we couldn't do anything before."

When the green flag fell for the restart, Burton quickly moved ahead of Mark Martin and Jimmy Spencer, who also stayed out but succumbed quickly to the cars with four fresh tires.

Burton earned enough points with the win to jump up four spots, to No. 21, in the standings.

"I don't know what it does for us," Burton said. "Hopefully this gives us some confidence and reminds us we can do it. There are still some struggles ahead of us. This isn't going to make everything all better overnight."

Burton wasn't the fastest car at the end of the night.

Tony Stewart finished his 1,100-mile marathon by moving from 43rd at the start to ninth on Lap 346 to third on Lap 388 before putting final pressure on Harvick. After the race, Stewart jumped out of his car, ready to prove a point to all the people who voiced opposition to his two-race day.

"For all the people thinking I was putting people in danger for running two races in the same day, you're a bunch of idiots," Stewart said. "I had the fastest car on the track today. Maybe y'all need to be doctors before you start writing stuff in the newspapers."

Labonte, the defending Winston Cup champion, looked set to run away with the race.

He led from Lap268 until he made a pit stop on Lap329 to change four tires and fill up on gas, as did many other contenders.

Seven laps later, he brought out the sixth caution flag when he spun out in Turn2 in the spot teammate Stewart did on the second lap.

Labonte came high out of the turn and had just pulled even with leader Jerry Nadeau's right rear quarterpanel when the back end of Labonte's No. 18 Pontiac swung around and started pulling him up the track.

Labonte slammed on the brakes, and the car traveled back down the track, the front sparking twice as it rubbed against the apron.

Jeff Gordon went in as one of the favorites after winning last weekend's Winston all-star race at this track and finishing second in each of the previous two points races.

Gordon, who was second in points, grabbed the lead when pole-sitter Ryan Newman spun out of Turn4 and brought out a caution flag on Lap11. Gordon was one of the strongest cars on the track until a pit road incident with Kenny Wallace under yellow on Lap 51.

Gordon was pulling out of his stall after receiving four tires and fuel when Wallace, pitting three stalls ahead of him, sideswiped the front right side of Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet.

The accident pushed Gordon's fender into his tire, and he had to pit several times to allow his crew to apply tape and pull sheet metal away. He struggled terribly after that, fighting to keep within the top 30 and finishing 29th.

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