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The Race Report.(Brief Article)
Jeff Gordon won't say it, but we will: This hunt's about done. Another decent finish or two and the three-time NASCAR champion will be a four-timer.
He won't get it until Atlanta in November, but his runner-up finish to Ward Burton in the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington removed
almost all doubt. His seventh consecu-tive top-10 and 11th in the last 13 races (nine of them top-threes) built his lead to 342 points over Ricky Rudd.
Mindful that champs are supposed to be politically correct, Gordon was. ``There's too many races left [11] to be counting points,'' he said. ``Anything can happen. We're capable of running well everywhere, although you never know about Talladega. But there's so much that can happen.''
Gordon led the most laps, but Burton was as good or better much of the day. He crashed in qualifying and took a provisional to start 37th, but quickly raced into the top-10. He led laps 312-329, lost it during a pit stop, then rallied to lead 359-367 for his third career win. He sat through a brief red flag at lap 363 before holding off Gordon and Bobby Labonte in a four-lap dash to a yellow-flag finish.
``I ...