QUALIFYING: Ricky Craven won the Bud Pole on his first race back with a speed of 128.394mph and a time of 00:29.665sec. Rusty Wallace started 9th with a speed of 125.915mph and a time of 00:30.249sec. Top Ten Qualifiers: 1st-Ricky Craven, 2nd-Jeff Gordon, 3rd-Dale Jarrett, 4th-Chad Little, 5th-Jeff Burton, 6th-Kyle Petty, 7th-Ernie Irvan, 8th-Darrell Waltrip, 9th-Rusty Wallace, 10th-Bobby Labonte. Notables in field: 15th-Mark Martin, 20th-Dale Earnhardt, 26th-Ken Schrader, 30th-Jeremy Mayfield, 38th-Michael Waltrip. Starting Grid
RACE: Jeff Burton, who had expressed a definite liking for NHIS, proved it was more than idle talk with an easy victory Sunday in defense of his Jiffy Lube 300 title. Burton led 191-of-300 laps in a Ford to win for the first time this season.
After starting fifth, he took the lead on lap 79 and dominated
the race from that point. By the halfway mark, he was dominating the race the way he had a year earlier, when he won by 5.372 seconds. This time, his margin of victory was 7.439 seconds over teammate Mark Martin. Third was Jeff Gordon who was trying to become the first repeat winner at the track where he took the CMT 300 last September. The run of Burton began after the crowd was quieted in the early laps by the fadeout of Ricky Craven. Craven had handling problems from the start and wound up 29th, five laps down. Burton averaged 102.996 mph in a race slowed six times by 40 laps of caution. There were 17 lead changes among nine drivers. The third-place finish enabled Gordon to increase his lead in the
points race to 62. Martin took over second place from Jeremy
Mayfield, who fell to fourth because he blew a tire and hit the
wall in the waning laps. Mayfield fell to 73 points behind Gordon
by finishing six laps down in 30th position. Top Ten Finishers: 1st-Jeff Burton, 2nd-Mark Martin, 3rd-Jeff Gordon, 4th-Rusty Wallace, 5th-Mike Skinner, 6th-John Andretti, 7th-Dale Jarrett, 8th-Kyle Petty, 9th-Ken Schrader, 10th-Kenny Wallace. Notables in the field: 14th-Terry Labonte, 18th-Dale Earnhardt, 19th-Ricky Rudd, 20th-Ernie Irvan, 24th-Michael Waltrip, 29th-Ricky Craven, 30th-Jeremy Mayfield, 35th-Sterling Marlin. Race Results
RACE RECAP:
After 300 Laps
Leaders: 9
Lead Changes: 17
6 Cautions for 40 Laps
Cars Out of Race: 7
Average Speed: 102.996mph
Winner: Jeff Burton
Margin of Victory: 7.439
Time of Race: 3:04:54
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