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Burton, 0 For 95, Wins At Tms

Associated Press

Auto racing

Jeff Burton avoided all the pitfalls of the treacherous new oval at Texas Motor Speedway to make Sunday’s Interstate Batteries 500 at Fort Worth, Texas, his first Winston Cup victory.

The win came in the 96th start for the 29-year-old driver from South Boston, Va., and was virtually uncontested over the last 58 laps of the 334-lap event on the 1-1/2-mile track.

“We’ve given them away before,” said Burton, whose best previous finishes were a pair of thirds. “We didn’t give this one away.

“It was just a matter of being patient and not messing up,” added Burton after hugging both his sobbing wife Kim and crew chief Buddy Parrott.

Burton, in his second season driving for Jack Roush Racing, took the lead by passing Todd Bodine, who then spun to bring out the last of 10 caution flags. After the restart on lap 282, Burton quickly moved away from second-place Dale Jarrett, finishing 4.067-seconds - nearly a full straightaway - ahead of the man who had won the last two races and still leads the series standings.

Burton took home $354,350 from the $3.8 million purse, one of the biggest in Winston Cup history. He averaged 125.105 mph.

Texas-born brothers Bobby and Terry Labonte finished third and fourth, followed by Ricky Rudd, Dale Earnhardt and the winner’s older brother Ward Burton.

Chad Little of Spokane finished 26th.

Pruett stays the course

After seeing accidents and yellow flags around him, Scott Pruett ended up driving twice around the course under the white flag, signaling the last lap, before winning the Australian IndyCarnival at Surfers Paradise, Australia.

Pruett, who took the lead for good when Paul Tracy and Alex Zanardi collided on the 42nd lap, had to run the extra lap because of a mixup following the decision to shorten the Indy-car race from 65 laps to 57 because of the string of accidents.

Pruett averaged 78.948 mph to win a race marked by five caution flags for a total of 24 laps. Greg Moore finished second.

Driver killed in accident

Tom Boune was killed when his midget car struck the wall in a turn and flipped during a weekend race in Madera, Calif.

Boune, 33, apparently died instantly Saturday night from spinal cord and head injuries, a hospital spokesman said.

The accident occurred on the 17th lap of a USAC midget race at Madera Speedway.