Burton dominates rain-soaked Gatorade 200

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- NASCAR tried hard, but Mother Nature and Winston Cup regular Jeff Burton won Saturday's Busch Series Gatorade 200 at Darlington Raceway when it was called at half distance by rain.

	Jeff Burton and the rest of the field was held short of the finish line by a Busch Series official.

The red flag was displayed at about 6:21 p.m. ET with Burton's leading No. 9 Ford and the rest of the field about 500 feet shy of completing the halfway lap.

After nearly an hour of trying to get ahead of rain that began falling under the race's fourth caution, at lap 68, NASCAR was forced to make a decision to pull the cars across the finish line, ending the race's 74th lap at about 7:18 p.m.

Since Saturday was only Burton's ninth Busch race this season, he started 33rd when the lineup was set by point standings. However, he knifed through the field to take the lead at lap 44 and went on to his third win of the season.

"It really was an awesome piece of machinery," Burton said. "It's not very often you get to laugh in your race car, but when I took the lead there I couldn't help but laugh, to come through the field like that was pretty amazing.

"It's just a great team, you know? We've been competitive every week had a chance to win almost every time the Gain car has hit the racetrack and that's the sign of a great team -- they just do a great job."

Burton, who won his third consecutive NASCAR Busch Series race at Darlington and his fourth total at the track, endured a long rain delay and was out front when rain prematurely ended the scheduled 147-lap race at the 1.366-mile oval completed.

	The field took a number of pace laps before the rain delayed the start. Credit: Autostock

"Nature is making it extremely difficult to finish this race at the advertised distance, which we always try to do," NASCAR's managing director of business operations Kevin Triplett said on MRN Radio. "It's tough to say we're simply going to crank 'em up and roll over the line, but we've tried real hard today (and) for those fans to hang in there with us is a tribute to them.

"With the whole Southeast needing rain, it's hard for us to say 'Rain when we leave here.' It's difficult. Entire communities have been praying for rain (but) we've sure gone through a whole lot of jet fuel trying to dry the track."

Behind Burton, Jason Keller, Jeff Green, point leader Greg Biffle and Jack Sprague rounded out the top five. Bobby Hamilton Jr., Scott Wimmer, Mike McLaughlin, Tony Raines and Scott Riggs were sixth-10th as most of the top 10 in the point standings maintained their top 10 starting positions.

Due to Biffle leading the most laps and finishing two spots behind Keller, he maintained his 78-point lead in the standings. Sprague remained in third but fell to 307 points behind.

"I guess it's good not to lose any points here at Darlington but we wanted to race a little bit more today," Biffle said. "We probably had a better race car than what we were showing there, but in any event we're glad it's over (because) we've all been getting wet here for a couple days."

"It's bad for the fans that they didn't get to see the whole race, but there's nothing NASCAR can do about the weather," Keller said. "NASCAR appeared like it was trying to do everything they could do to get in the race in and I applaud them for trying.

"We didn't get any practice and the Winston Cup drivers in the race got nearly two hours of it this morning, so to finish second is a testament to how good this race team is. I definitely would've liked to have won, but the 9 car has really got his act together here."

Burton, the defending winner of the race, dominated the laps that were run under green, but the win was colored by the fact that only about two-thirds of the laps that were run were under green-flag conditions.

"What an awesome day for the Gain Ford Taurus -- I can't believe we won two races in one year at Darlington Raceway," Burton's crew chief Brad Parrott said. "Give it all (credit) to Jeff Burton and this Gain Ford team -- they're great.

"The pit crew picked up six spots for us -- this is big."

Burton was leading when Jamie McMurray's No. 27 Chevrolet hit the wall in Turn 2, then hit it again and burst into flames before making it to pit road, where it was extinguished.

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"I was just trying to stay up with the leaders and I got in the wall in Turn 2," McMurray said. "I must've cut the right front tire down and hit the wall again and I must've knocked the fuel pump off of it."

While the cars circulated under the race's fourth caution, raindrops -- which Friday canceled all Busch Series practice and Bud Pole Qualifying -- again began falling. Officials contemplated displaying the red flag three laps shy of halfway, but continued under caution.

About 500 feet shy of completing the halfway lap, the red flag was displayed for the second time and the race was halted at about 6:21 p.m., with daylight beginning to dwindle.

Although the Winston Cup cars were able to practice on the 1.366-mile oval for 105 minutes Saturday morning, the start of the Busch race was delayed by rain for nearly four-and-a-half hours -- with one false start that consisted of nearly 30 minutes of circulating under caution without the initial green flag ever being thrown.

On the fourth lap under a combined green and yellow flag, the rain became too heavy and the red flag was displayed at about 2:55 p.m. The lap count reverted to zero, as the competitors had been told when the green and yellow were first displayed, and it was about 5:30 before the track was dry enough to begin.

The first nine laps were run under caution and, as scattered drops continued to fall in puddles in the infield, Biffle took the initial lead from his outside-of-the-front-row starting spot. Biffle led until lap 32 but only 23 of those laps were under green.

Including the first nine laps, three cautions flew in the first 40 laps. The second was for Dan Pardus' single car spin in Turn 3, while the third flew when the cars of Kerry Earnhardt and Ricky Hendrick hit the wall in Turn 4.

In the end, with the weather again threatening Sunday's Winston Cup Mountain Dew Southern 500, Burton said he hoped to pass some of his Saturday experience along.

"The setups on the cars are pretty close, actually," Burton said. "The Busch cars use the same shocks, same front springs, same sway bars and real close to the same rear springs. The Cup car is pretty good -- not as good as this little ride, but we'll have a chance with it, I think."