Burton Daringly Reemerges

Jeff Burton snapped out of a season-long slump Sunday night, pulling away for an easy victory in the Coca-Cola 600 to give Roush Racing its first win of the year.

Burton elected not to pit on the sixth and final caution of the race on Lap 337 and took the lead when Kevin Harvick went in for gas and fresh tires. Burton led the final 73 laps, opening up a huge advantage and beating Harvick to the finish by 3.190 seconds at Concord, N.C.

Burton’s crew then ran over to the fence at the start-finish line and climbed it, mimicking what Helio Castroneves and his crew did after winning the Indianapolis 500.

“We’ve still got some hard days ahead of us, but this is a good start,” Burton said.

Tony Stewart, who raced in both the Indy 500 and the NASCAR race, finished third. He finished sixth in the Indy 500, then took the 90-minute flight to North Carolina. In all, he completed 1,100 miles over roughly 10 hours.

“I don’t feel too bad. If I could find a dirt track, I’d probably go run a sprint race or a midget right now,” Stewart said. “For all those people who said I was an idiot for putting people in danger by trying to race in over 1,100 miles, they’re the idiots because I was the fastest car on the race track there at the end.”

Michael Schumacher won his fifth Monaco Grand Prix after pole-sitter David Coulthard stalled at the start of the most demanding course in Formula One.

Schumacher extended his lead over Coulthard to 12 points in the standings with a comfortable victory on the twisting circuit through Monte Carlo.

Schumacher paced Ferrari to a 1-2 victory, with Brazilian teammate Rubens Barrichello second, 0.4 seconds behind. Eddie Irvine finished third in his Jaguar.

Schumacher is tied with Graham Hill with five victories on Monaco’s 2.1-mile circuit. Ayrton Senna, the late Brazilian, had six.

Kenny Bernstein raced to his third Top Fuel victory of the season and 26th of his career, beating Larry Dixon in the Advance Auto Parts Nationals in Topeka, Kan.

Bernstein, a 56-year-old who plans to retire after next season, took the lead in the season standings for the first time since winning his lone Top Fuel title in 1996.

Tony Pedregon won in Funny Car, Ron Krisher won in Pro Stock and Don Smith prevailed in Pro Stock Truck.