Gordon Works Hard in Order to Win Southern 500

Jeff Gordon watched Jeff Burton dominate the first 400 miles of the NASCAR Winston Cup Southern 500 at Darlington, S.C., then Gordon caught him in time Sunday to win in another record-setting performance.

Burton, who lost a bumping match to Gordon as the final lap began a year ago, led for 242 of the first 274 laps at Darlington Raceway. He held an advantage of eight seconds at one point, setting a pace that eliminated every driver from contention except Gordon.

“This was the hardest race I’ve ever had to run,” said Gordon after winning the Labor Day weekend race for the fourth year in a row. “The car slid all over the place because the track was so slick.”

Gordon, whose Chevrolet finished 3.613 seconds ahead Burton’s Ford, said he was surprised to win because Burton was so strong.

“He was killing us all day long, but we made the right adjustments near the end,” he said. “And I think he used up his car.”

Burton drove despite a case of flu, which had prevented him from defending his title Saturday in the Busch Grand National Series Dura Lube 200. He said it was a factor.

“I was pretty sick, and I couldn’t feel the car,” he said. “I just couldn’t tell my crew the things they needed to know.”

He said he was unable to relate how badly he was struggling on the slick surface.

Gordon’s 39th career victory also made him the first to reach double figures three consecutive years. It also enabled him to tie Darrell Waltrip’s record of 30 victories in three years and the mark of 37 victories in four years. He shares that record with Waltrip and Richard Petty.

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Car owner Jack Roush says he has received information that some tires of Gordon, the Winston Cup points leader, might have been treated with a chemical solution to soften them and make them go faster at the end of the CMT 300 last Sunday at Loudon, N.H.

Roush raised the issue after the race when Gordon took right-side tires with 67 laps remaining and outran cars that had taken four to win the race.

Is that possible? One crew chief doesn’t think so.

“If you’re going to soak tires, you’d probably only do it for a lap of qualifying,” said Sammy Johns, crew chief at Buz McCall’s Caterpillar Chevrolet. “Trying it for five laps would be on the verge of insanity.

“It’s not like washing them with fabric softener After a while, chemically softened tires can get as hard as bricks.”

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A woman who was at Darlington Raceway for the Southern 500 died of cardiac arrest.

Dorothy Ann McKinley, 49, collapsed in the track’s infield and was taken to an emergency care facility where she died after attempts to resuscitate her failed, track spokesman Russell Branham said.

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Dario Franchitti won the race, but Alex Zanardi clinched his second consecutive CART FedEx Series championship with a fourth-place finish in the Vancouver Molson-Indy at Vancouver, Canada.

Franchitti, who earned his first CART victory two weeks earlier at Elkhart Lake, Wis., passed Michael Andretti for the lead seven laps from the end and pulled away to a win worth $100,000 from the race purse and an additional $340,000 bonus from Marlboro for becoming the first driver to win from the pole in 22 races.

Zanardi is only the third driver in CART’s history, which began in 1978, to win consecutive championships. Rick Mears did it in 1982 and Bobby Rahal in 1987.

Al Unser and Al Unser Jr. are the only other CART drivers to win multiple championships.

Zanardi, who has six victories this season, wrapped up the title in the 15th of 19 races.

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Cristiano da Matta of Brazil dominated the 12th race of the PPG-Dayton Indy Lights Championship at Vancouver en route to his fourth victory of the year and clinched the season’s title.

Da Matta, who started from the pole, led every lap as he set a record race speed of 76.404 mph around the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit despite being slowed by three full course cautions.