Gordon wins UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400

Sunday, March 4, 2001 | 3:23 a.m.

Jeff Gordon led the final 43 laps and held off Dale Jarrett by 1.477 seconds to win the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 and a $1 million bonus Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The win was the 53rd of Gordon's career and the fifth time he has won Winston's million-dollar bonus. Gordon was eligible for the bonus by virtue of his fourth-place finish in the previous "No Bull 5" race last October at Talladega Superspeedway.

"This is a huge win for us because we haven't run real well here at Las Vegas in the past," Gordon said.

Gordon's win was the first for a Chevrolet in the four-year history of the Las Vegas Winston Cup race. Roush Racing Fords won each of the first three events with Mark Martin (1998) and Jeff Burton (1999 and 2000).

Sterling Marlin was third, Johnny Benson was fourth and Todd Bodine fifth before a sell-out crowd of 125,000. Bodine won Saturday's Sam's Town 300 Busch Series race here.

Marlin took over the Winston Cup points lead with his third consecutive top-10 finish. Rusty Wallace, who led the points after two races, was involved in a crash on the ninth lap with teammate Jeremy Mayfield and dropped out of the race.

Burton, who won the past two Winston Cup races at LVMS, was taken out of contention early when he spun and hit the wall in Turn 2 on the second lap of the race.

Mark Martin, Steve Park, Kevin Harvick, Ron Hornaday and Jimmy Spencer rounded out the top 10.

Las Vegas native Kurt Busch, a Rookie of the Year candidate who was making his Winston Cup debut on his hometown track, posted a career-best 11th-place finish.

There were 20 lead changes among 13 drivers in the race, which was slowed by six caution periods for 25 laps.