Seeing not always believing for Davis, Ward Burton

Pete Iacobelli

Monday, March 20, 2000 | 8:37 a.m.

DARLINGTON, S.C. - Bill Davis didn't believe it, not even as he saw it unfold.

His cars don't win races. They take poles, break track records, even hold leads late in races. But win, no way.

At least not until Ward Burton's dominating run at Darlington Raceway to take the Mall.com 400 on Sunday.

"We've been so close so many times, I purposely didn't get excited," Davis, Burton's car owner, remembered. "These races are so hard to win."

But no one was going to take this one from Davis and Burton, not even Ward's younger brother, Jeff, who took the checkered flag the three times Ward finished as high as second a year ago.

About the only thing Ward, who owns the track's qualifying record, had to do to keep the Burtons' Darlington win streak alive was stay out of trouble. "The car was so strong, it was a privilege to ride in it," said Ward, who gained his first Winston Cup victory since October 1995 at Rockingham.

He moved past Matt Kenseth 36 laps from the end. He finished 1.4 seconds in front of Dale Jarrett. Dale Earnhardt, a winner last week in Hampton, Ga., was third in a Chevrolet. Tony Stewart finished fourth, just ahead of Jeff Burton, who talked like a proud brother.

"When two members from the same family can win races in Winston Cup, that means an awful lot," Jeff said. "I just feel so good for Ward and those guys."

"It was almost hard not to get emotional when there were five, six laps to go," said Ward Burton, who won $132,725. "I knew if we kept doing what we were doing, we would come through."

Jeff came to congratulate his older brother, and Ward got on the phone with his parents, who no longer have to tiptoe around Jeff's victories during family gatherings in South Boston, Va.

"I think everyone was relieved a little bit," Ward said.

And while it meant a lot to outrun Jeff, "it was that we beat 40 other teams out there. We came out and beat Bobby Labonte and Dale Jarrett and Dale Earnhardt and Mark Martin," Ward said. "We beat those racers because we had a car that was better."

It was the first time a Pontiac won at Darlington since Joe Weatherly took the Rebel 300 in 1963, and only the third time in 94 races that the manufacturer can claim a Darlington victory.

Everything went right for Ward in this one. He moved to the front for the first time on lap 15, passing Jeff Gordon. He returned to the front three other times and gradually stretched out to a 2-second lead over Jarrett with 30 laps remaining.

The win ended a 132-race drought for Davis' team.

Burton led 188 of the 293 laps and finished with an average speed of 128.076 mph. Burton became the fifth winner in five races this season.

Jarrett said Ward Burton had the best car most of the race.

"When the sun was out, we were just as good," said Jarrett, who started 17th. "But he was definitely stronger."

It looked like a group of nervous drivers early on worrying if rain would delay a third straight Darlington event.

Ken Schrader, Terry Labonte and Joe Nemechek tangled on the first lap and, after a five-lap caution, Kenny Irwin spun out and collected Jeremy Mayfield and Jerry Nadeau.

In all, 15 of the first 22 laps were slowed by caution.

Three-time series champion Gordon hoped that his pole run Friday would signal a return to the top. He finished eighth, his best result of the year, but stretched his winless streak to 10 races heading to Bristol, Tenn., for the Food City 500 next Sunday.

Earnhardt had his fourth top-10 finish in five races this season after generating a lot of excitement with last week's victory by 2 feet over Bobby Labonte. He said his performance should have come as no surprise to anyone.

"I don't know where anybody said I was going," Earnhardt said. "We're just doing what we have to do."

The results left few to complain about the competition among manufacturers. There were five Fords, three Chevys and two Pontiacs - Ward Burton's and Stewart's - in the top 10.