Shortly after Burton's crew chief Frank Stoddard did a rain
dance in the pits, Burton did a victory dance of his own after
winning the rain-shortened CarsDirect.com 400. It was the
third consecutive rain-shortened Winston Cup event that
Burton has won - and the second in which he has won the
coveted $1 million Winston No Bull bonus.
"We'll take bizarre finishes as long as we keep coming out
on top," Burton said. "The key is to put yourself in
position to win. We seem to keep not falling into these
things because you don't fall into races, but we seem to
have ourselves in the right place at the right time. That'll
turn around on us one day, but we're gonna take advantage of
it while we can."
Burton has been nothing short of dominant in Las Vegas,
winning the last three events he has competed in at the Las
Vegas Motor Speedway. He's now won the last two Winston Cup
events there, along with a runnerup finish in 1998. In
addition, he won Saturday's Sam's Town 300 Busch Series
event (plus a fourth place finish in 1998 and a third place
finish in 1999).
Burton's total take for the weekend was $1,459,275, with
$1 million coming from the No Bull contest, $368,925 from
winning Sunday's Cup race and $90,350 for winning Saturday's
Busch event.
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"I guarantee you if I was in a casino, I wouldn't have this
kind of success," Burton said. "We've just been fortunate.
We've had some breaks go our way. To win any race you have
to have some good breaks."
Tony Stewart, who joked about losing $6,000 at a casino
baccarat table Saturday, continued his outstanding start
this season, wracking up his third top five finish in as
many races this season.
"I think everybody knew going into today what the concerns
were with the weather and everybody had the opportunity to
adjust their strategy accordingly," Stewart said. "I don't
think it was a big strategy day anyway to be perfectly honest.
(Burton's) just got that luck. Not only has he won three times
due to rain, he has won two Winston No Bulls because of it.
Whatever he's doing, I'm going to rub up on him, touch him,
rub his head or do something."
Burton moves up to fifth in the Winston Points, trailing
Bobby Labonte, defending Winston Cup champion Dale Jarrett,
teammate Mark and Stewart.
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Mark, who yielded the lead to Burton on lap 136, was as
philosophical about finishing third Sunday as he was about
losing Saturday's Busch race with three laps to go.
"We wound up third," Mark said. "We had a good shot at it,
but I didn't know it was gonna rain. I would have tried a
little bit harder to keep the lead, but I didn't and Jeff was
fast and that's probably how it should have played out.
(Burton) was real fast. We were one adjustment away from,
hopefully, making a race out of it, but we didn't, so here
we are."
There were only two caution flags thrown in the otherwise
incident-free race, both due to rain. The first caution lasted
24 laps until NASCAR officials red-flagged the event until
the weather cleared. The second caution flag came out on lap
145 and lasted until lap 148 when the race was stopped.
Approximately 75 minutes later, NASCAR ruled the event a
complete race due to the fact that more than half of the
scheduled 267 laps were completed.
After winning the first NASCAR Winston Cup Series race at
Las Vegas, Mark has watched Jeff Burton take the last two.
Mark wants to get out of town, but not because Jeff Burton
swept the weekend's races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway out
from under him in odd fashion. "I can't wait to go home," he
said after finishing third at the CarsDirect.com 400, which
was called due to rain just past midway, allowing Burton his
third straight win at Las Vegas and second of the weekend.
"Doing double duty takes its toll on an old man."
His body is worn from competing in both the NASCAR Busch
Series Grand National Division and NASCAR Winston Cup Series
races. But Mark, 41, said his mind did not take a beating,
even though he felt his car had enough to win Sunday and he
was the sure winner Saturday -- until Jack Sprague's crash in
front of him with only three laps left allowed Burton to slip
beneath him before the yellow came out. That race finished
under the yellow flag.
"I didn't leave here exactly empty-handed," he said. "A second
and a third -- I can still keep my job. I was reminding
(the media) yesterday I've lost more races than I've won."
Mark said the rain that eventually forced the end of the
race was factored in by the crew of his No. 6 Valvoline
Ford, but no one could predict how much would drop or when.
"It was probably green on the radar," he said, referring to
the color indicating moisture. "But you don't know if it's
going to be rain because it may just be moisture in the air."
While he usually doesn't mind when races are cut short,
Mark said this time he had something more to offer.
Burton had the best car, he conceded, despite most people
chalking his win up to luck.
"It's not all luck," he said of Burton's success. "He ran
good. It's not like he was in fifth place and just won
because people ahead of him pitted when the red flag came out."
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