Ward Burton wins Southern 500

By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
September 3, 2001
11:44 AM EDT (1544 GMT)

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Ward Burton held off Bobby Labonte and Jeremy Mayfield in a wild five-lap showdown -- punctuated by a melee with less than two laps to go -- and won his first Mountain Dew Southern 500 Sunday at Darlington Raceway.

Ward Burton celebrates his first win since the 2000 spring race at Darlington.

Burton’s No. 22 Dodge had pulled away from the No. 18 Pontiac of Labonte, the defending race winner, and Mayfield’s No. 12 Ford when the latter driver smacked the Turn 4 wall coming down to complete lap 365 of 367.

Behind him, Dave Blaney, who re-started the race in eighth in the No. 93 Dodge, drove under sixth-place Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 8 Chevrolet in Turn 4 and smashed him into a crash into the outside wall. A number of other cars were involved and Burton led a dash back to the white flag and the race-ending 11th caution at lap 366.

Video: Late crashes  Video: Dale Jr.  Video: Mid-race  Video: Jarrett in garage  Video: Lap with Harvick  Video: Green flag  Ward Burton hat, $18.99

“It ended up pretty good -- these guys never give up,” Burton said of his Bill Davis Racing crew, which earned Dodge its second victory in the last three NASCAR Winston Cup races.

“Darlington is a compromise and the guys were able to compromise for me. I don’t know if I’m the best driver but I damn sure had the best race car.”

Burton had previously won Darlington’s spring race in 2000 but said winning the 52nd annual Southern 500 -- a four-hour, five-minute marathon -- was special.

“It’s great,” said Burton, who averaged 122.773 mph. “All my heroes -- particularly Bobby Allison -- made the Southern 500 a tradition and I am just happy to be a part of it.”

Jeff Gordon’s previously dominant No. 24 Chevrolet finished second under caution, ahead of Labonte, his teammate Tony Stewart’s No. 20 Pontiac and Bill Elliott’s No. 9 Dodge.

Ron Hornaday limps his Pontiac back to pit road after a late crash. Hornaday finished 33rd.

“That was kinda ugly,” said Gordon of the finish, in which he first battled Rudd fender-to-fender before moving up. “I knew I was gonna have to fight for every position. I gave Rudd plenty of room and we were bumping and banging -- that was just good, hard racing at Darlington.”

“It (red flag) is kind of standard practice these days,” Gordon said of the red flag. “As ill-handling as my car was, I was hoping we would’ve run around a little more under caution and had a three-lap shootout instead of a five-lap shootout.”

“Our Interstate Batteries Pontiac was good all day -- a lot better than we anticipated it being,” Labonte said. “It was just one of those deals that at the end we just got beat out a little bit. That’s good for Bill Davis and their team.

“If it had stayed under green I couldn’t have got Ward. When Jeremy hit the wall I about wrecked -- I don’t know if there was something on the track or what, but I just took it easy on the last lap and Jeff got by -- but I didn’t want to end up with a wrecked race car.”

Stacy Compton goes spinning down the frontstretch. Compton finished 42nd.

The shootout finish developed when two separate accidents laid debris from Turn 3 to the start/finish line. The cars were stopped under an eight-minute, 21-second red flag on the backstretch to allow the track to be cleaned up.

Jimmy Spencer appeared to pinch his No. 26 Ford down on Sterling Marlin’s No. 40 Dodge while trying to run three wide off the corner. Spencer spun and hit the frontstretch wall in front of pit road. At the same time, Ron Hornaday, Joe Nemechek, Terry Labonte and Mike Wallace got tangled up between Turns 3 and 4.

Even as that caution flew, Burton dove under leader Labonte for the race’s 19th lead change going into Turn 1 on the 359th lap and held the advantage back to the race’s 10th caution flag.

“Well, he got a run on me off of 4 and passed me down the front straightaway,” Labonte said of the crucial pass. “Just as that happened they wrecked off of 4. I raced under him into 2 and I was only under his left rear corner so I backed off. Everything he did was fair and square -- he was right and he beat me.”

Jeremy Mayfield leads Jeff Gordon. Mayfield had a strong car but slapped the wall late and finished 13th.

The cars of Spencer and Nemechek were eliminated on the spot.

Earlier, Gordon led 138 laps but said, “I gave this race up today. I think we had the car capable of doing it but I came off Turn 2 ahead of Bobby (Labonte) and I just hit the wall” with less than 30 laps to go.

Jeff Burton pitted under the last caution with six laps remaining to take four tires and restarted as the last lead lap car. He made up some 15 positions to finish sixth and was followed by Rudd, top Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate Kevin Harvick, Jerry Nadeau and Ken Schrader.