Looking the shade of a man who won more times at Darlington then any other driver Ward Burton, in his most Pearson-esque race yet, drove slow and steady through the first 450 miles and then came on strong at the end to win today’s Southern 500. David Pearson, the Silver Fox, took home more wins than anybody using these familiar, sly, fox-like tactics to finish Darlington in one piece, only showing his hand in the final laps. After all “To win Darlington, you have to finish Darlington!” Ward took that to heart to win his first race in a Dodge for the Bill Davis/Cat Rentals team.

Now, I don’t want to get off on a rant here but… the commercials have become totally ridiculous on these TV broadcasts. Sure, we got to pay for them bills but didn’t y’all wonder why ESPN wouldn’t go near your bid? After covering racing for two decades I think they probably had an edge on what NASCAR could comfortably bring in. Then you come and pay billions to steal the rights and then make us pay for it by seeing more ads than racing, and your lose money to boot. I just can’t seem to figure out these sure-fire losing stocks like all the dot.coms and now NBC and TNT. I will never understand how you can run a business when everyone knows you’re losing money, knows you can’t make money, yet the big-wigs get paid millions to do so. But to make all of us suffer due to the idiocy of the management and they laugh all the way to the bank…. Oh yeah, that is the American way. Now…

”Let’s Go Racing!”

Kurt Busch showed his promise by grabbing his first pole at the “track too tough to tame” (hey, it’s legally required to say that and the “Lady in Black” [hey got both of them out of the way in the first sentence] at least once in every article about Darlington) and showed some racing time strength too by jumping out to the lead and leading the first 23 laps. While holding off the outside pole starter, Jeff Gordon, both drivers failed to notice Jeremy Mayfield closing fast. As he swooped low Gordon grabbed hold of his tail and followed him past the out-drafted Busch. Mayfield then led through the 50th lap before Gordon made his move to take the top spot.

Jeff only got to lead 4 laps though before Ron Hornaday checked up to avoid Mike Waltrip’s first “Darlington stripe” (another one off the list of required phrases). Trouble was Jason Leffler didn’t get checked up and sent Hornaday for a loop. With the tire wear suffered at Darlington everybody pitted with Gordon getting back out first, followed by Mayfield, Busch, Kevin Harvick and Bobby Labonte. The restart at lap 62 saw Gordon easily hold off those chasing until lap 77. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. it seems, thought he was still at Bristol and used the “chrome horn” (OK, OK I’ll stop) to let Hut Stricklin know he should get his lapped butt out of the way. The resulting spin from Hut sent the yellow flying for the second time today.

More pits saw the Kurt Busch Sharpie crew pull off an upset and get the #97 out first, followed by Gordon, Sterling Marlin, Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte. Busch again showed his pole and first 25 laps were no fluke by staying out front for the next 50 laps. But the strong car during this part of the race seemed to be the always-strong Dale Jarrett car. At lap 130 Jarrett took the lead convincingly from Busch after passing over half the field from his 27th starting spot. It was now clear sailing all the way to lap 137 when Dave Blaney lost a tire, all over the track, and the resulting debris signaled yellow #3. Ad once again it was pit stops for everyone.

Once again the Dupont team got Gordon out at the point and he was followed by Jarrett, Labonte, Busch and Jimmy Spencer who was once again running clean and near the lead pack. Dale though, was not satisfied for second and blew by Gordon just 3 laps later.It was then all Jarrett until lap 182 when Elliott Sadler grabbed a giant hunk of wall before sliding off into the path of Robert Pressley. The spinning cars brought out a yellow and as before it was the Dupont crew getting Jeff back out front after the pit stops.

Green at lap 185 had Jarrett running 2nd followed by Busch, Harvick and Spencer but lap 187 saw Jarrett once again blow by Gordon for the lead. Meanwhile, deep in mid-pack Junior was once more showing a severe case of immature offensive driving when he spun his second driver of the day, sending Stacy Compton for a loop. The resulting wreck brought out yellow #5 at lap 191 as well as a warning from the NASCAR gods in the sky to the #8 team telling Junior, “touch another and you’re dead where you stand Pilgrim”. It also elicited my quote of the race from Wally Dallenbach: “Racing is passing a guy clean, not spinning him to go by. That isn’t racing.” Pit stops had been just made so the cars remained out and racing resumed at lap 195.

Jarrett seemed most likely to pull off his first Southern 500 win through to this point but by lap 198 Gordon was going low on Dale, pulling Kurt Busch on his tail. Jeff then led the next 50 laps until the first and only round of green flag stops took place from laps 247 through lap 252. As with every yellow flag stop it was the Dupont crew giving Gordon the quickest stop under green and a 6 second lead looked insurmountable to Kenny Schrader in second, Mayfield third, Spencer fourth and DJ in fifth. But with that big of a lead NASCAR had a yellow waiting for the closest thing to a gaffe they could find. Kurt Busch offered that up when at lap 179 he blew a tire. Despite not getting in anyone’s way, getting down out of the racing groove and continuing toward pit road NASCAR had that competition yellow flying and the field gathering back up for bumper to bumper racing.

Dale Jarrett, strength of the field all afternoon had reported a vibration just before the green flag stops and with a yellow stop available now the UPS crew got a chance to check it out. A faulty hub sent them to the garage and a 12 lap drop for repairs. It now looked like the race would go to Gordon, the only car capable of staying anywhere close to Jarrett before his demise. Green at lap 284 saw Gordon leading Mayfield, Ward Burton (where did he come from?), Schrader and Spencer. The question if anyone could touch Gordon was quickly answered when Jeremy Mayfield returned to the lead, blowing by Jeff at lap 291 and holding the point until lap 310 when Brett Bodine continued the Bodine ways of last week and slapped the wall. Yellow was out for the 7th time and pit stops were in order.

Somehow the Gordon crew didn’t get him out first this time. It was the Bill Davis/Cat crew that got Ward Pearson, oops I mean Burton, out first followed by Labonte, Gordon, Mayfield and Spencer. With the last 50 laps coming up it was time for Ward to quit being sly and start racing for the win. Green at lap 317 saw Burton jump out to a ½ second lead and hold it steady over Gordon until lap 329 when Elliott Sadler lost a tire and NASCAR saw a chance to give the cars a chance for one more stop and a restart to run for an exciting close finish. And like nearly every other yellow today it was the Dupont crew giving Jeff Gordon the lead again. Labonte, Burton, Spencer and Mayfield followed him out.

What followed the green at lap 340 was some of the best racing I have seen in a long time and certainly so far this year. Laps 340 to 344 had Bobby Labonte slip by Gordon, who slipped back by Labonte. These two battling allowed Ward to catch them and he and Labonte drafted past Gordon again. Gordon then slipped by Ward, which allowed Mayfield to close up to this battle. Mayfield hooked up with Burton and those two then drafted by Gordon. By lap 344 it was, Labonte on top but the fox, Burton was giving chase. As Burton closed to begin nipping at Labonte’s tail, Bobby got an assist from big brother Terry who was spinning Robert Pressley back in the pack. Pressley flew across the track and slammed the wall hard enough to make a couple of my fillings come loose before climbing out of the car to stagger over to the wall, then collapsing. Luckily later reports had Pressley sore but OK.

The front runners weren’t going to give up track position so when the green flew at lap 354 it was Labonte, Burton, Mayfield, Gordon and in fifth, Ricky Rudd who had struggled all day to climb to the top 5. It looked like a 13 lap race to the finish was about to give NASCAR that close, heart-grabbing, last-lap racing they love to drop on us every week. The hound again managed to stay a step ahead of the fox but finally at lap 358 the fox slipped by and showed the hounds his tail. Ward looked ready to drive away to an easy finish but not before we squeezed in one more yellow at lap 359 for Ron Hornaday’s wall slap followed by a quick shot across the track to collect Joe Nemechek too. Meanwhile in front of them Jimmy Spencer was cutting down on Sterling Marlin (watch the replays Jimmy and you’ll see that Sterling stayed the same distance from the white lines, you came down) and spinning himself into the inside wall. The red flag came out a lap later to clean up the wrecks and save some racing for the fans.

A yellow flag lap to get the field rolling, followed by a yellow and one to go lap for pit stops left us with a 4 lap shoot-out and a recipe for excitement (read that “disaster” if you’re one like me who would rather see a yellow finish then a multi car wreck). The green flag at lap 364 after only the back markers made pits, saw Ward slide out quick to a ½ second lead. With Labonte trying to hold off the pressing attack of Jeff Gordon, Ward moved out further. On lap 366 when the white flag was getting ready to come out Ward was out to 2 ½ second lead and it was just a race for also-rans. The also-rans decided to give NASCAR that rock ‘em-sock ‘em finish that they hope for every time they throw the late race cautions. Dave Blaney got so low on the apron he looked like he was pulling down for a pit stop. The rookie mistake showed him quickly that this is not possible at Darlington and as he flew back onto and across the track he gathered up Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Matt Kenseth, Ricky Rudd and Bill Elliott. Many other cars seemed to be involved including Sterling Marlin who got the spinning car of Junior but we were watching the race for the win up front and then enough commercials to make me forget what I was watching. But Ward Burton got to do a much appreciated Winner’s Circle interview and all was good.

Kudos to Jeff Gordon (2nd) who did a last lap bump and pass on, Bobby Labonte (3rd) who had a chance late but couldn’t handle Ward, Tony Stewart (4th) who had a 10th until the last lap crashes, Bill Elliott (5th) who despite getting in the last lap wreck still managed to keep it straight and get a top 5, Jeff Burton (6th) who gained about 9 spots in that wreck, Ricky Rudd (7th) who also kept it straight despite wrecking, Kevin Harvick (8th) who weaved the right direction, Jerry Nadeau (9th) who did too and Kenny Schrader (10th) who made this old man grin real big for that old man when he was battling for the lead late in the race. An attaboy to Sterling Marlin who had a top 10 taken in the last wreck, Dale Jarrett who had the car to beat early and Robert Pressley who had another strong run that was taken away by a hard crash. But the Big Yahoo goes out to Ward Burton and the Bill Davis/Cat Rentals crew! Great job gang!

Next week we're off to Richmond and some Saturday night short tracking. I'm asking early this week... I need someone to do next week's race report. That's right, here's YOUR chance to be Stooge for a day. But since I am going to be back stage at a Crosby, Stills and Nash concert next Saturday night I won't be seeing the race. If you want to volunteer you have until Sunday evening to get it to me as I won't be back from Dallas until then. So drop me a line and let me know if you want your 15 minutes. If not, well I guess we won't have a race report next week. Until the next time...
Keep The Shiny Side Up!

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