DuraLube 200

Mark ended his NASCAR Grand National series career at Darlington Raceway in the style to which he has been accustomed.

Mark held off Roush Racing teammate Jeff Burton by .410 seconds to win Saturday's Dura Lube 200 for this third consecutive win at the 1.366-mile superspeedway and eighth in his career. Mark's fifth win of the season increased his series-leading career race win total to 45.

Elton Sawyer finished third; series points leader Jeff Green was fourth; and Ward Burton, substituting for Mike McLaughlin this weekend, was fifth. Green increased his lead to 604 points over second-place Jason Keller, Green's teammate at ppc Racing.

Mark and Jeff Burton spent much of the race trading the lead. Burton was the race leader when the field pitted for the final time under caution on Lap 130 of the 147-lap race.

Mark was the first to leave pit road, but still had to hold off Burton through two more cautions and a four-minute red-flag period over the race's final 17 laps.

Mark edges out Jeff

"(My team) got the job done on pit road and got us out in first place," Mark said. "Jeff Burton was really strong today. I don't know if I could have passed him or not.

"We changed the setup around and the last run was the strongest the car had been all day. That was when it counted and that's when we needed it because we had the track position to go with it. We had to work for it because Jeff was going to be awfully hard to beat."

Mark has four races remaining on his Grand National schedule before he retires from the series and devotes all his time to his Winston Cup team. "I look forward to each of them," Mark said. "I'm certainly going to miss it."

Burton said his team didn't have any trouble on pit road during the final round of stops.

Mark wins at Darlington

"We had great pit stops all day. We didn't have a bad pit stop there at the end, they just had a great one," Burton said. "I'm not down on my guys. They work their butts off. We just got beat."

Sawyer, the highest finishing regular in the series Saturday, said he is not among those who wait anxiously for Mark's departure. In 196 starts, Mark has won 45 times - an astounding 23 percent of the time.

"My hat's off to Mark. He's not going to be in this series next year. I know there are a lot of people who think that is going to be good, but not me," Sawyer said. "He's a great competitor and he's the man at Darlington."


Congratulations, Mark Martin, for the win at the 2000 NASCAR Busch Series DuraLube 200 in Darlington, SC.