Burton Wins Short Vegas Race

Whether it's luck or just plain good timing, Jeff Burton has it right now.

For the second time in as many days, Burton won a race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway by making the right move at the right time.

"We'll take bizarre finishes as long as we keep coming out on top," said Burton, who was out front Sunday when rain cut short the CarsDirect.com 400.

On Saturday, he won a Busch Series race when he managed to slip around a spinning car that held up leader and Roush Racing teammate Mark Martin.

Sunday's race was the third time in less than a year, Burton has been the beneficiary of wet weather that cut short a race. It also was the second time a rain-shortened victory has given both Burton and one lucky fan a $1 million bonus.

"The key is to put yourself in position," Burton said. "We seem to have ourselves in the right place at the right time. That will turn around on us one day, but we're going to take advantage of it while we can."

Burton passed Martin for the lead on lap 136 of the scheduled 267-lap race. Although he didn't know it at the time, it turned out to be the winning move.

The second rain shower of the day began just nine laps later and the cars were parked on the main straightaway of the 1 1/2-mile oval for the second time on lap 148.

With the rain still falling steadily after a wait of about 1 hour, 20 minutes, NASCAR gave up, sending home about 140,000 disappointed spectators.

Although Burton said he believed he had the fastest car, he also noted that Tony Stewart and Martin were certainly not beaten when the race was stopped.

"It's kind of a shame, really," Burton said. "Even though we won the race, it's not as dramatic as it could have been because those three cars were getting ready to put on one heck of a race and everybody kind of ran out of time."

Stewart also managed to get past Martin before the final red flag, earning last year's top rookie a second-place finish. Bill Elliott, Bobby Labonte, Johnny Benson and defending series champion Dale Jarrett followed Martin across the finish line when the race was stopped.

"We were running Jeff down a little bit at a time," Stewart said. "If we'd have had 10 or 15 more laps, we might have beeable to catch him and get by."

But Stewart was actually pretty happy to take a second-place finish.

"I felt my car was down on power and I was more worried about the other guys gaining more than we could gain as the race went on," he said.

Martin lost the Busch Series race Saturday to Burton after he got stuck behind the spinning car of Jack Sprague. On Sunday, he let Burton get by in traffic.

"I didn't know it was going to rain and that we were about to stop racing," Martin said. "I would have tried harder to keep the lead. But I thought we were just one adjustment away from keeping the lead and never got a chance to make that adjustment."

Burton, who has 12 career victories, also won two rain-shortened races in Darlington, S.C., last year, with the September win in the Southern 500 earning the big bonuses.

The victory raised Roush Racing's Las Vegas victory streak to six races, including Martin's win in the inaugural Winston Cup race in 1998 and in the Busch race in 1999, as well as Burton's wins in last year's Winston Cup event and Saturday's race, and a victory by Greg Biffle last September in the Craftsman Truck Series race.

This is the third time that the South Boston, Va., native has won the $1 million No Bull 5 bonus awarded at five races during the year by the series sponsor. The eligible drivers the top five finishers in the previous No Bull 5 event are paired by random draw with a fan.

In this case, Burton earned the big payoff for Joyce Williams of Port Isabel, Texas, who waited out the rain nervously in the back of a limousine parked in the garage area.

Sunday's race, what there was of it, was pretty uneventful. The only other caution period before the second rainstorm began on lap 20 when the rain first pelted down. There was a 25-minute red flag that began on lap 41, but the track remained mostly dry.

Under the green flag, the Fords looks as strong as they have in the two previous Las Vegas races, with Martin and Burton quickly moving to the top. They were running 1-2 by lap 19 after chasing down early leader Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Labonte, who won the race in Rockingham, N.C., the previous Sunday, came into the race trailing Daytona 500 winner Jarrett by five points in the standings. Sunday's results put Labonte into the lead by four points over Jarrett, and 13 over Martin.

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