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Ward Burton, who took a provisional and started 37th, wins the Southern 500 with a charge through the pack.
By JOANNE KORTH
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 3, 2001
DARLINGTON, S.C. -- The first time Ward Burton came to Darlington Raceway as a teenager, he learned a valuable lesson in an incident involving a saw, a 25-foot pine tree and the family Winnebago.
Inches matter.
A master of the fast lane at Darlington, where danger and the outside wall are always inches away, Burton won the 52nd running of the prestigious Southern 500 on Sunday, adding his name to the elite list of drivers who have won NASCAR's oldest event.
"My heroes raced here, like Bobby Allison and all the guys who made our sport what it is today," said Burton, who won for the third time in 239 races. "I'm just happy to be a part of the Southern 500 tradition."
Burton's No. 22 Dodge took the checkered flag under caution after an action-packed final 50 laps on the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval. There were five crashes in the final 80 miles, including a multicar accident two laps from the finish.
The victory was Burton's first since the 2000 spring race at Darlington. Dodge won at Darlington for the first time since 1971 and for the second time this season, the manufacturer's first in Winston Cup racing in more than two decades.
Jeff Gordon finished second, extending his series points lead to 342 over Ricky Rudd, who was seventh despite getting caught up in the final wreck. Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart and Bill Elliott completed the top five.
Gordon led 138 of 367 laps. His No. 24 Chevrolet seemed to be the car to beat until the track "too tough to tame" reached out and grabbed Gordon while leading with about 30 laps left.
"I smacked the wall exiting Turn2 and really blew our chances at a win," Gordon said. "I wasn't even loose at the time, just trying to carry momentum. I just blew it and damaged the rear end just enough to make it push, and our day was done from there as far as winning."
Burton took over.
Not unlike an ill-planned quest for firewood more than 20 years ago, Burton came through unscathed even when everything seemed to be falling around him.
Burton took the lead with eight laps to go, passing Labonte on the frontstretch as a pair of accidents behind them brought out a caution. With rain clouds threatening, the event was delayed by a red flag six laps from the finish to allow for cleanup and a green-flag finish.
"I was stressed," Burton said of the more than eight minutes the field sat askew on the backstretch with the engines turned off. "I had everything cut off in there to make sure it would crank, but I was definitely nervous."
On a single-file restart with three laps left, Labonte pulled the nose of his No. 18 Pontiac to the inside of Burton. Rather than block Labonte, Burton trusted the high line at Darlington to see him through.
And it did.
"This is a driver's racetrack," said Bill Davis, Burton's car owner. "It takes a unique feel to get around this place and stay running well all day long. A lot of it lies in the drivers' hands."
Burton's admiration for Darlington began with his first visit. He was 13 in 1975 when he and younger brother Jeff saw their first race at NASCAR's oldest track.
"Dad said to go out and get some firewood," Burton said. "I commenced to cut down one of these 2-foot diameter pine trees and it landed right next to the motor home. Dad wasn't too happy. It was hard to get a fire started with green pine."
Few would have expected Burton to be in the mix. After smacking the wall in qualifying, he started 37th in the 43-car field, a bad omen at a track where only 10 of 96 races had been won from outside the first 10 starting positions.
After working his way to 12th, Burton was caught on pit road when a caution came out on Lap137. To stay on the lead lap, he purposely exceeded the 45 mph speed limit on pit road, the punishment for which was to go to the back of the pack again.
But Burton, robbed of a victory here last year by rain, overcame every obstacle.
"Driving at Darlington is always a compromise, but I didn't have to compromise as much as some of the guys in front of me," Burton said. "We were the best car and I just had to be smart with it."