Jeff Burton Has the Late Heat

The most remarkable thing about Sunday’s Checker Auto Parts 500 may have been that more than 100,000 NASCAR fans sat in a broiling midday sun--with no shade--to watch 43 stock cars race 312 times around a mile asphalt oval at Phoenix International Raceway.

The weather, hovering above 90 degrees, was unseasonably hot even by Phoenix standards. On Saturday, the 98 degrees was an all-time high for Oct. 27.

Tires fared worse in the heat than the spectators. Nine cars, including those of leaders Rusty Wallace and pole-sitter Casey Atwood, were sidelined briefly because of blistering right front tires.

Winners rarely mind the heat in the euphoria of victory, however.

Jeff Burton, looking fresh after his 3-hour 2-minute 26-second race in one of Jack Roush’s Fords, won his second consecutive Winston Cup race at Phoenix after a late-race battle with Mike Wallace, whom he passed with 33 laps remaining. Ricky Rudd was third.

“The heat might have bothered me if I hadn’t gotten myself in pretty good shape the last month,” Burton said. “I drank plenty of water and that, and my conditioning program, paid off for me. I felt pretty good out there so the heat wasn’t a factor.”

And no way did the heat have a chance to ruin the day of a second-place driver who posted the best finish of his career while he was auditioning for a full-time ride, as Wallace was.

“Am I happy?” said Wallace, Rusty’s younger brother. “Well, if running second to Jeff Burton, just 2.4 seconds away from winning my first Winston Cup, isn’t exciting, I don’t know what is. I haven’t been in a position like that all year, in a position to do what I’ve always wanted to do and that’s win a Winston Cup race.”

This was only Mike Wallace’s fourth race in Roger Penske’s No. 12 Ford, after replacing Jeremy Mayfield in midseason.

Wallace’s contract is only for the remainder of the 2001 season. He led for 45 laps but couldn’t hold off Burton, who made the winning pass on Lap 279.

“I knew Mike was going to do everything he could to keep me behind him,” Burton said. “He’s never won a Winston Cup race and he’s in the position to impress his new owners in only his fourth start in that car, that’s going to be an aggressive guy to get by.

“He’s already aggressive and that should make him more so. I wanted to get by him on the inside, but the way his car was handling I thought I’d be better off trying the outside. I got my fender to his right rear tire and he came up on me. I lifted to keep from wrecking, but I knew that if I ever got door to door with him that he couldn’t do that or he would wreck both of us, and I knew he didn’t want to do that.

“Once I got door to door, our car was handling better than his was and it was pretty much over, but he did a good job. He was very aggressive, but he raced me clean.”

Burton and Mike Wallace agreed that the fastest cars in the race probably belonged to Rusty Wallace and Atwood, both of which lost a lap while changing their blistered tires.

Rusty led 91 laps and appeared to be running like a winner when he slowed on Lap 184, turning the lead over to Atwood.

“It’s disappointing to say the least,” said Rusty. “To have a strong car like that, the strongest thing out there, and get bit by a tire deal, it really hurt.”

Atwood, the rookie Dodge driver, lasted only eight laps in front before his tire went flat.

Goodyear tire executive Tony Freund blamed excessive heat for the problems.

“The tires supplied for today’s race were race proven from Loudon [N.H.] and Richmond [Va.] races,” Freund said. “It appears that heat is the common dominator in the incidents involving right front tires. We’ve seen no construction problems, but the heat effects are influenced by low tire pressure, an ambient pressure 30 degrees higher than last year, brakes running hot and motor heat.”

Atwood made the early stages of the 500-kilometer race look like a series of qualifying laps as he ran consistently close to his 131-mph pole speed. Rusty Wallace took over after 64 laps but was in front for only seven laps before Burton moved in front for the first of five times.

“We kept working and making our car better each time we stopped,” said Burton, who became only the second repeat winner in a NASCAR race at Phoenix. The late Davey Allison won in 1991 and 1992.

Burton’s win completed a sweep of major NASCAR races this weekend on the Desert Mile. Greg Biffle, another Roush driver, won the Craftsman Truck race on Friday and the Busch Grand National on Saturday.

Like Mike Wallace, Robby Gordon had his finest day on a NASCAR oval when he finished seventh, losing one position to Jeff Gordon on the final lap.

“We did what we had to do for the championship, but I’m certainly not happy with it,” said Jeff Gordon, who lost 15 points to third-place finisher Ricky Rudd. His lead is now 380 points, and he needs to finish 24th or better in the remaining four races to win his fourth championship.

Also like Mike Wallace, Robby is auditioning for a full-time ride with Richard Childress’ team.

“He did a great job for us all day,” Childress said. “To me, watching him with his talent and ability, he reminds me a lot of Tim Richmond. We’ve helped him, keeping him calmed down. We told him just be smooth. I’ve got a lot of respect for him as a race driver, and we’re going to get there.”