Points battle harkens back to ’97

In My Opinion | Gordon, Burton look to restart rivalry

DAVID POOLE, dpoole@charlotteobserver.com

Saturday, Mar. 31, 2007

• Raceday | Martinsville 500

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- With Jeff Gordon leading Jeff Burton by just three points, the current Nextel Cup standings have a decidedly retro feel.

A decade ago, it seemed that Gordon and Burton were about to engage in one of racing’s great rivalries.

On his way to his second championship, Gordon beat Burton in a stirring last-lap battle in the 1997 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Earlier that year, Burton had scored his first career Cup victory at Texas. Burton also won at New Hampshire and here at Martinsville on his way to fourth-place finish in the standings – his first of four straight top-five points finishes for Roush Racing.

But Gordon vs. Burton never quite turned into Richard Petty vs. David Pearson or Dale Earnhardt vs. Darrell Waltrip.

Gordon has added two more championships since 1997, and starts third in Sunday’s Goody’s 500 at Martinsville Speedway as he looks for a 76th career victory that would tie him with Earnhardt on the all-time list. But Burton, after winning 17 times from 1997 to 2001, went almost five years before finally winning his next race at Dover last year.

That Dover win gave Burton a six-point lead over Gordon in the Chase for the Nextel Cup. But Burton blew an engine here in October and finished 42nd in a setback that marked the beginning of the end of his title hopes.

Burton starts 19th in the No. 31 Chevrolet at a track barely an hour’s drive from where he grew up in South Boston, Va., where he has 12 top-10 finishes in his 25 career starts, but only one in the past three years.

“Not only did we break here last year, but we ran terrible,” Burton said. “We're always trying to improve in the areas that we're not strong in. ...If you're going to compete at a high level and compete to win championships, if you can't run with the (top) guys on the short tracks, then in my opinion you can't win a championship.”

Burton got his short-track season in 2007 off to a solid start a week ago, finishing second by less than a car length to Kyle Busch at Bristol in the debut race for NASCAR’s new car of tomorrow.

He comes here this weekend hoping to continue a strong start to this year. Burton has completed every lap in the season’s first five races, finishing second once, third once and fourth twice. According to NASCAR statistics, Burton’s car has been in the top 15 for 87.9 percent of the laps run so far this year, the most of anyone.

Gordon has been stout, too. He was third at Bristol after two runner-up finishes earlier this year. Gordon’s worst finish so far this year is 12th at Atlanta, and Martinsville is simply one of his best tracks. Gordon has seven career victories here, including sweeps in 2003 and 2005, and he has finished ninth or better in the past eight races at the .526-mile track.

“Any time you run well at a track like this, you are going to like it a lot,” Gordon said. “You can't overdrive the corners, you have got to be smooth in the gas. …It is a tough place to get around so I guess I like the challenge of it.”

Burton agrees.

“I almost hate that I love it,” he said. “It requires aggressiveness and it requires patience. Typically those two things don't go very well together.

“It is a tremendous challenge to get the car to drive the way you want it to drive. It's long, it's hot, it's difficult - those are the things that I enjoy about it. At the same time, those are the things that make me not like it so much.

“When you've had a good day at Martinsville, you've earned it. There are no gimmes at Martinsville."

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