Bristol, TN.- Jeff Gordon took the lead with two laps remaining and held off a strong challenge from Rusty Wallace to take his first Bristol night race win Saturday night at Thunder Valley.
In winning the Sharpie 500 in Bristol, Gordon also snapped a season-long and 38 race winless streak and picked up valuable points in the in points standings. Rounding out the top five were Wallace, Dale Earnhardt Jr., teammate Kevin Harvick, and Matt Kenseth. After the race a jubilant Gordon said “I feel this is like the first time I’ve ever won.”
Rusty Wallace looked to be lurking until lap 447 when he mounted a charge to the front. He looked like the car to beat, but another challenger was working his way up right behind Wallace, who finished second. Gordon snaked past lapped traffic and cars that stayed out on worn tires, following Wallace’s every move. On lap 495 everyone started heading toward the new victory lane to celebrate with Rusty, when Wallace encountered heavy traffic, let up going into the turn and Gordon pushed Rusty out of the groove and slid underneath to take the lead. The shocked crowd was an equal throng of boos and cheers for Gordon. After the race, Wallace complained about Gordon’s rough driving.
“ I got nailed in the rear, and turned sideways,” said Wallace who finished second at BMS. “ I didn’t expect it. I was trying desperately to knock the (expletive) out of him, but just couldn’t catch him.”
The crowd favorite was Wallace, but the racers new Gordon was the favorite to pick up the win. The rainbow warrior also won the pole in qualifying on Friday. The post-race victory celebration was again a large amount of booing coming from the stands.
It seems like only days ago when Gordon, a former Bush series driver, won his first Bristol race in the 250-miler back when he was a crowd favorite. Success on and off the track led to fans to reject him as “too Hollywood” for their southern liking.
In another incident, Ward Burton, a strong contender all night, was taken out of contention, after being spun out by Dale Earnhardt Jr. toward the end of the race. For his part of the incident, Earnhart, Jr. said “I know Ward knows I didn’t do that on purpose, he went in too hard and I couldn’t get off (the gas) quick enough to keep from spinning him.” Burton saw things differently. He proceeded to take the heat shields off his feet after climbing out of the car and waited. When Junior came around, he threw the shields at Junior’s window netting, and pointed angrily.
“I’ve got some really good words for him that I can’t say on T.V.” he said to the cameras in his best South Boston, Virginia accent.
Another incident, one involving nine cars, erupted on lap 298 Dale Jarrett and Jeremy Mayfield tangled. Needless to say tempers were as hot as ever after the race, with several crews and teams exchanging words about rough driving on the track.

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