Burton breaks slump, wins Coca-Cola 600

By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive
May 28, 2001
3:47 PM EDT (1947 GMT)

CONCORD, N.C. -- Jeff Burton’s futile season has been one of the most perplexing aspects of the first three months of the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season.

Jeff Burton took his 16th career Winston Cup victory.

Heading into his sixth full season at Roush Racing, most everyone in the industry tabbed Burton as the man to beat for the Cup crown, but heading into Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway the year had been nothing if not frustrating. One top-five. Two top-10s. 25th in the point standings.

Sunday night, he woke up from the nightmare.

Coca-Cola 600 Results  Winston Cup Standings  Newman crashes early  Video: Victory Lane  Video: Final Laps  Video: Early highlights

A decision not to pit following the sixth and final caution by crew chief Frank Stoddard with 63 laps remaining propelled Burton to his second career win in NASCAR’s longest race in front of a sellout crowd of 185,000 people.

"Never give up, that's how you describe us," Burton said. "This is a great race team. I'm real proud of everybody. This team hasn’t quit. This was a great night for us. We need to do more of this. I had a good racecar. We came here and said the heck with what everybody else is doing. This was the first time we’ve been on our game."

Burton, who led a race-high 126 laps Sunday, moved from 25th to 21st in the series point standings, and now has 16 career victories. For his efforts, he pocketed $258,846.

“This feels good, gives us some confidence,” Burton said. “This is an awesome feeling. We’ve been lucky enough to win it twice. This is just a great day for racing with the Indy 500 and our race on the same day. It’s pretty cool to win today.”

For much of the event, it looked as if Bobby Labonte was the man to beat. However, that final caution was thrown for his spin in Turn 2. Jerry Nadeau had just taken the lead away from Labonte heading into Turn 1 on lap 336 when Labonte lost control of the No. 18 Pontiac heading into Turn 2.

He slid sideways through Turn 2, somehow managing to keep the car from contacting the wall. By saving the car he remained on the lead lap, enabling him to recover and post a fifth-place finish.

Tony Stewart finished sixth at Indy in a car owned by Chip Ganassi.

Labonte’s teammate, Tony Stewart, successfully completed the Indianapolis 500/Coca-Cola 600 double for the second time in three years, finishing sixth at Indy and third at Charlotte, but not before overcoming several obstacles.

At Indianapolis, he suffered from numbness in his right leg, making him “inconsistent to the throttle.” Therefore, during a rain delay with some 50 laps remaining, he went to the care center for a deep tissue massage.

“My muscles were knotted up. I could push it forward but I couldn’t lift,” Stewart said. “It was a numbness and normally that’s due to a pressure point in the feet that maybe puts too much pressure on a certain part of your leg.”

While running the Indy 500, Stewart missed the driver’s meeting at Charlotte and thus was sent to the rear of the field for the start of the 600. Just two laps into the race he overdrove it into the corner and spun in Turn 2.

No matter, he patiently worked his way to his fourth-straight top-5 finish. Last time he did the double, in 1999, he could barely stand following the 600. This year, he had the fastest car on the final lap and was ready for more.

“I’m pretty pumped up right now. The doctor asked me how I felt, and I told him I was the fastest car out there over the last 30 laps. I was fine. I don’t feel too bad. If I could find a dirt late model I’d run it tonight. I wish it had been 1200 miles. With a little more time we may have won this thing.”

Kevin Harvick completed 599 of 600 laps over the weekend, finishing second in the Coca-Cola 600.

Kevin Harvick continued his phenomenal rookie campaign, finishing second in his first-ever Coca-Cola 600 start. That redeemed a subpar effort in Saturday’s NASCAR Busch Series event in which he finished 26th and two laps down to race-winner Greg Biffle. After his stellar effort Sunday, he joked that next year might be his turn to try the Indy/Charlotte triple.

“You never know, maybe next year I’ll run the Busch race Saturday, then Indy and this race Sunday,” Harvick laughed. “This thing wasn’t too good yesterday, but the Busch race really helped me,” Harvick said. “I got a lap down but fought back. We’ve been running real good, we just haven’t been able to get the finishes. This was a great finish.”

Dale Jarrett fought cracked ribs and a 37th-place starting position to finish eighth Sunday, enabling him to add 61 points to his lead over Jeff Gordon in the championship point standings.

“We made something of the night,” Jarrett said. “I certainly would have like to have stayed in the top-5 and go for the No Bull (million-dollar bonus) again. The main thing, after the problems we’ve had, to come out of here with a top-10, is good. To gain points is just a bonus.”

Jarrett now sits 75 points up on Gordon, the early-race dominator before bad luck on pit road relegated him to a 29th-place finish.

On lap 53, Gordon suffered a major setback on pit road when he exited his pit stall -- just as Kenny Wallace entered his. The two collided, and Gordon suffered right-front damage to the No. 24 Chevrolet. He was forced to re-pit and repair the damage, and therefore restarted 39th following the race’s third caution.

Gordon, a three-time Coca-Cola 600 winner, started second and had built a significant lead prior to the mishap. He led 27 of the first 53 laps.

“It’s very frustrating, the car was pretty good,” Gordon said. “To have a car that was leading the way to having a car that was three laps down is awful frustrating.”

Kurt Busch finished 12th after starting 42nd.

As for Burton, the frustration is finally over.

“Let me tell you about being picked to win the championship -- that’s what you want,” Burton said. “If you don think you can get it done, you don’t need to be in professional sports. We haven’t been thinking about winning the championship, though. We didn’t talk about the championship.

“We have fought for respect. When your peers respect you, that means a lot. We haven’t done a good job getting ourselves in position to win this championship - until tonight.”