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Wild finish Burton tames Darlington for third career victory
By Stephen Thomas, CNNSI.com DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Darlington Raceway is infamous for wreaking havoc on Winston Cup races. It is, don't forget, "The Track Too Tough To Tame." But for much of Sunday's Southern 500, the demanding track was rendered fairly neutral, the victim of the combined efforts of today's reliable cars and dependable tires. Too tough to tame? Kurt Busch, a rookie, led 74 laps -- what's the world coming to? But, late in the day, the raceway reasserted itself and did its best to protect its reputation as a fickle beast. The last 16 of the race's 367 laps were slowed by three cautions. The race not only ended under yellow, but the winner, Ward Burton, took the lead on lap 360 when he beat Bobby Labonte to the line in a race for the yellow flag. It was the third victory of the 39-year-old Burton's career and his first since winning the spring race at Darlington last year. Jeff Gordon, who passed Labonte at the line as the field simultaneously took the yellow and the white flags, finished second. A turn 4 accident just before the white flag that involved Sterling Marlin, Ricky Rudd and Dale Earnhardt Jr. ensured the race finished under caution. Labonte held on to third. Gordon extended his lead in the points race to 342 points on Rudd, who finished seventh.
"He got a run on me off of [turn] 4 and he passed me down the front straightaway," Labonte said of Burton's key pass. "I [tried] to break his momentum. I didn't, so I pulled back and was going to try to pass him back going into [turn] 1. Just as we got into 1, they wrecked in turn 4. I raced into 2, got underneath him a bit, but there is no way I could have gotten by him or we would have wrecked." They didn't wreck, but Joe Nemechek and Ron Hornaday did, bringing out the 10th of 11 caution flags with six laps to go. But NASCAR made the controversial decision to red-flag the race -- which Earnhardt Jr. angrily called "stupid" -- ensuring that Labonte would have one last shot to get past Burton on the restart. After a delay of 8 minutes, 21 seconds, the race restarted for the final time. Not only did Burton get a good jump on the restart, but Labonte was quickly challenged by Jeremy Mayfield, who at that point was running third, which enabled Burton to get clear for the win. Mayfield eventually finished 11th. "I was stressed," Burton said of having Labonte trailing him on the restart. "At the same time, I was very happy to have Bobby back there. I respect him a lot. I feel like I'm going to get drove the way I want to get drove by having the No. 18 behind me. That calmed me down a bit."
Labonte's presence and his subsequent duck inside might have given Burton pause. Not only has he been knocked out of four races this season as a result of accidents, but he wrecked his car in qualifying Friday and was forced to use a provisional. Burton not only became the second consecutive Southern 500 winner to come from 37th to win (Labonte did so last September), but he also overcame a speeding penalty that sent him to the tail end of the lead lap, or 27th, on lap 144. "That was twice we were all the way in the back," Burton said, "and had to take our time and get up there. I just had to be smart with it." Smart and patient, because Burton knew that his team had given him the car to win. After Friday's accident, his crew worked tirelessly to repair the damaged car and the result was a car that Burton said was the best on the track at the end. "I felt so guilty about what happened in qualifying that I stood in there and worked with 'em," he said. "NASCAR let us in an hour early [on Saturday] and we finished the car about 20 minutes before practice." The victory was Dodge's second in three weeks and its first at Darlington since Buddy Baker won the 1971 Rebel 400.
Robert Pressley had the race's scariest crash, slamming the outside wall near the finish line and spinning to a stop. He got out of the car, staggered to the wall and laid on the track until an ambulance arrived. Pressley walked into the infield care center and was taken to Carolina's Hospital System in Florence. A CT scan of the spine and abdomen showed no damage, Darlington Raceway spokeswoman Cathy Mock said, and Pressley would be released Sunday evening.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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