Burton dislikes beating brother

Wednesday, March 1, 2000 | 10:36 a.m.

Jeff Burton's win in last year's NASCAR Winston Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway jump-started a season that saw Burton win six races and finish fifth in the championship standings.

But the younger of the two racing Burton brothers looks back on his win in Las Vegas with mixed emotions for it was his older brother, Ward, whom Burton beat to the finish line.

"You certainly can still enjoy the win," Burton said of beating his brother, "but it does have a negative sense to it as well. I don't think I enjoy winning races when I beat Ward as much as I do when we beat somebody else."

Las Vegas proved to be the first of three races last season in which Jeff and Ward Burton finished 1-2; Jeff also scored wins over his brother at Rockingham and Darlington.

The first such battle proved to be the most exciting as the Burtons ran side-by-side for the final four laps and traded the lead five times in the final 65 laps of the Las Vegas 400.

"Having to beat Ward, you felt great that you won the race but you felt bad that you beat your brother," Burton said.

"I take a lot of pride in being able to say that even though it is Ward, I still tried as hard as I can try -- I didn't try any harder because it was Ward, or didn't try any less because it was Ward. At that point, it was just another car but it is difficult when you have to do that."

Sibling issues aside, the win proved to be the catalyst to Burton's most successful in his six years as a full-time Winston Cup driver.

"It was an early win for us -- that was the earliest (in the season) that we had ever won a race since I had been at Roush Racing. I think that it felt good to get that behind us," Burton said. "We had run real well at Rockingham the week before and then we came here and won.

"It was just a really good start of the year for us after a terrible Daytona start."

Of course, being a teammate of Mark Martin in the Roush stable hasn't hindered Burton's development, either.

In four years as Martin's teammate, Burton said he has gained invaluable experience from the Winston Cup veteran -- but the majority of what Burton has learned hasn't had anything to do with pit strategy or passing for the lead.

"Mark has taught me a lot of things about racing -- a lot of it is off-track stuff," Burton said. "He has experienced things sooner than I experienced them, he has dealt with the pressures of performing at a high level and making sure that you can bring it all to the race track every single week.

"There are a lot of things that he has dealt with that I hadn't dealt with, and as we started having more success, he really helped me understand what we needed to do and how we needed to do it."

But that's not to say that Burton hasn't picked up a few things from Martin when it comes to getting around a race track.

"I think that he has helped me a great deal at places like Michigan and California and Las Vegas and those kinds of race tracks and I like to believe that we have been able to help them at places like Richmond and Martinsville and Rockingham and Darlington," he said.

"It's just a really good mix because his strengths are some of my weaknesses and vice versa."

Burton, who finished second in the season-opening Daytona 500, is one of five drivers in line to claim the $1 million Winston No Bull 5 bonus if he can win Sunday's CarsDirect.com 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Burton captured two No Bull 5 bonuses last year, at Charlotte and Darlington, and finished first in Las Vegas -- another No Bull 5 race -- but was not eligible for the bonus.

As if Burton needed more incentive to win Sunday's race, the next Ford driver to visit Victory Lane will give the car manufacturer its 500th win in the Winston Cup Series.

"It would be an honor to be the guy that can win the 500th race for Ford," Burton said. "Ford is a big part of what we do at Roush Racing and Jack Roush has been involved with Ford well before I got involved with Jack or even before Mark got involved with Jack.

"To be the driver that could win the 500th race and the team that could win the 500th race would really mean a lot."