Burton forges desert dynasty

Monday, Nov. 6, 2000 | 10:38 a.m.

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Jeff Burton may have run out of races to catch Bobby Labonte for the NASCAR Winston Cup championship, but Burton on Sunday clinched NASCAR's unofficial desert championship.

Burton won his fourth race in the Southwest this season when he held off Jeremy Mayfield to capture the Checker Auto Parts/Dura Lube 500 before a crowd estimated at 100,000 at Phoenix International Raceway. A day earlier, Burton won the NASCAR Busch Series race at PIR.

It marked the second time this season that Burton had swept the Busch Series and Winston Cup events on the same weekend; he also won both races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March.

"I think it's more coincidence than anything else," Burton said of his rare double-double in the desert.

Burton's win Sunday had more to do with luck -- Ricky Rudd's bad luck, to be precise -- than coincidence.

Rudd appeared to have the car to beat in the closing moments and was in the lead with 18 laps to go when he got caught up in an accident on the backstretch, handing the lead to Burton.

Burton passed the lead to Roush Racing teammate Mark Martin when Burton pitted under yellow, but Burton regained the lead with five laps to go and held off a charging Mayfield by .854 seconds for his fourth win of the season.

Burton, who led six times for 105 laps, said he was confident he could have caught Rudd had Rudd not got involved in the wreck.

"We were about a tenth and a half, two-tenths quicker than Ricky and he had a lot of lapped traffic in front of him that he was going to have to contend with," Burton said.

"It's always harder for the leader to pass the lapped traffic than it is (for) the second-place guy, so we were a little faster than he was at that point. Between those two things, we were going to get to him, I think."

As it turned out, Burton never had to worry what would happen once he caught Rudd. On lap 294 of 312, Rick Mast cut a tire coming out of Turn 2 and Mike Bliss plowed into him from behind. Bliss lost control of his steering and drifted down the track, where Rudd made hard contact with the No. 27 Pontiac.

"All I could see was I guess the 14 car (Mast) had a blown right-front tire and he was headed for the outside fence," Rudd said. "It looked like (Bliss) didn't even see it happen.

"Everything was going to be cool and then the 27 ... just ran right into the back of the 14 car and the next thing I know, he runs right in front of me."

Rudd went from the lead to 37th place and Burton had the win -- and a little sympathy for Rudd.

"I don't feel as bad for (Rudd) as I (feel) good for us because that's the way this thing works," Burton said. "But I do feel bad for him.

"He got taken out and had an opportunity taken away from him -- not of his doing -- and that's always hard as a driver ... to take. That's the worst way to lose a race."

On that, Rudd agreed with Burton.

"It has been kind of like that all year," Rudd said. "It seems every time we have a win shaping up, something happens. We should have three, four, maybe even five wins this year.

"I don't know, it seems like other people's circumstances dictate our finishes too much but there's not a whole lot you can do about it; you just pick up the pieces and go on."

Burton said running Saturday's Busch race helped him on Sunday.

"On a technical side, it doesn't help (to run the Busch Series) because the cars are so different," Burton said. "But it helps me as a driver from a practical standpoint.

"(On Saturday), there were a certain amount of (Winston Cup) drivers who were either at their motel or in their motorhome or doing something else and I was out there getting practical experience -- and you can't replace practical experience."

Steve Park finished third, passing Rusty Wallace for the position with four laps remaining. Winston Cup points leader Bobby Labonte rounded out the top five and added to his championship lead.

Labonte leads Dale Earnhardt, who finished ninth, by 218 points with two races remaining.

Although not one of the more exciting Winston Cup races this season, there were 23 lead changes among 13 drivers Sunday. The average speed of the race was 105.041 mph and there were six caution periods for 38 laps.