Burton Makes a Clean Sweep at Phoenix International Raceway

Jeff Burton did it. He went to Phoenix International Raceway with a mission, and he left with two more wins under his belt. He not only took the win in the Outback Steakhouse 200 Busch Series race Saturday in the No. 9 NorthernLight.com Ford Taurus, but he followed it with a victory in the Checker Auto Parts/ Dura Lube 500 Winston Cup race Sunday in the No. 99 CITGO SUPERGARD Ford Taurus. What more could you ask for than two wins in one weekend?

Winston Cup Series
Checker Auto Parts/Dura Lube 500
Sunday, November 05, 2000

After an impressive qualifying run to start him in second for the Checker Auto Parts/Dura Lube 500, Jeff Burton followed up Sunday's race with a trip to victory lane for the CITGO SUPERGARD team.

Although Burton had some bad luck in the pits, he was able to overcome the challenges and take the win at Phoenix International Raceway. Burton immediately started the race by challenging pole-sitter Rusty Wallace for the lead, and for the first 37 laps of the 312-lap race, Burton had led 27 of them. A caution on lap 37 saw Burton enter pit road for a wedge adjustment along with taking four tires. The 15-second pit stop placed Burton in third position when the race restarted on lap 42. A second caution was called on lap 53, but Burton stayed out on the track.

The Roush Racing team had moved into second before making a routine pit stop on lap 128 where the team made track bar adjustments and took four tires. When the field of drivers completed its pit stops on lap 138, Burton again sat back in second position behind Steve Park. A caution flag fell on lap 147, and crew chief Frank Stoddard opted to only take right-side tires during the pit stop, so the restart on lap 156 saw the No. 99 CITGO SUPERGARD Ford in first position. By lap 183 Burton still held first spot where he began pulling away from the pack by more than two seconds. A caution on lap 202 saw the team take four tires while making no additional adjustments to the car. A difficulty removing a lug nut allotted more time for the pit stop, so the restart on lap 211 saw Burton sitting back in third behind Wallace and Ricky Rudd. But that didn't slow Burton down, as he had regained the lead by lap 236.

Bad luck struck again for the team as a caution on lap 248 saw Burton enter pit road for a four-tire pit stop, however, the jack broke during the pit stop, so again, the stop took more time than normal for the Roush Racing team. Burton sat in seventh when the race restarted on lap 253. On lap 292, Burton was driving second behind Rudd when a caution was called, however Rudd wasn't able to dodge the wrecked vehicles on the track and damaged his car, allowing Burton to take over the lead.

A pit stop on lap 296 saw the team take right-side tires in seven seconds, and the restart on lap 302 saw Burton sitting in third behind teammate Mark Martin and Wallace. Martin opted to stay on the track to gain position instead of pitting. But Burton had a little more strength after taking new tires in the recent pit stop, which allowed him to pass Martin on lap 308 and take the checkered flag. We did lose track position every now and then," Burton said. "We broke a jack in the pits and then we had a lugnut hang up one time. We just didn't have a good day in the pits, not because we don't have good guys but because it didn't work out for us. I thought us and the 12 car were the fastest cars for sure. This is a good day for us. It feels really good to get CITGO SUPERGARD in victory lane.

"I feel bad for Ricky Rudd. He looked like he was in good shape. We were gonna catch him, but catching him doesn't mean you're gonna pass him. Ricky is obviously a great race car driver, his wins will come again. He's showing everybody that he can still do it, there's no doubt about that."

"We are optimistic right now. If you look at the last four months how many laps we've led and how we're running in the front, we're real proud of that. We struggled in the middle part of the year but we've overcome that and we're running better now than we've ever run, so I'm really proud of guys for not getting their heads down. We've worked really hard. This has been a team effort -- all of our engineering support, everybody, has worked real hard to get us back in line and I'm real proud of the team effort we've been able to put together."

Busch Series, Grand National Division
Outback Steakhouse 200
Saturday, November 04, 2000

Jeff Burton and the No. 9 NorthernLight.com Ford Taurus dominated the Outback Steakhouse 200 at Phoenix International Raceway as he led 148 of 200 laps to finish in victory lane. Burton started the race in third position behind Busch Series regulars Jason Leffler (pole sitter) and Jeff Green.

The Roush Racing team had quickly worked its way into first position by lap 46. Early on, Burton felt tight and wanted to make air pressure adjustments, so a caution on lap 50 saw the team take four new tires while also making track bar adjustments. The 15-second pit stop placed Burton back in first position when the race restarted on lap 56. By lap 113 Burton still held the lead, while pulling away from the pack by more than two seconds. Lap 133 saw Burton and Leffler running together and racing ahead of the pack by more than six seconds.

A routine pit stop on lap 139 saw the team make track bar adjustments after making air pressure adjustments to the fresh set of tires.

When the routine pit stops were completed on lap 145, Burton again sat in first position. The rest is history for the Busch drivers as Burton led the remainder of the Outback Steakhouse 200 Saturday to take the win.

"It wasn't as easy as it looked," Burton said. I thought Leffler had the faster car, but we had better pit stops than he did. We had a fast car too, but I thought he ran really well. I didn't have any brakes left by the end of the race, so I was just glad it ended when it did. That was about all I had left. Today's results mean nothing for tomorrow's race. There is a confidence factor, but confidence doesn't win races.