DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Jeff Burton never figured on winning a race after crashing, then thought about it for a moment and decided it was appropriate.
"Hey, this is Darlington," he said. "And anything can happen at this place."But even the half-century-old track had never been part of anything like this. The leader was finished, unable to turn another wheel in anger.
Then, with the field slowed because of the accident, he was saved by the rain that nearly was his undoing, and won the TranSouth 400.
Burton, who had battled Jeremy Mayfield and Jeff Gordon throughout much of the $1.8 million race Sunday, had stood near his badly damaged car and motioned to the angry sky to keep the wet stuff coming.
Moments later, his prayers were answered. NASCAR decided it could not restart the race -- halted earlier for nearly three hours.
It was Burton's second victory this year and seventh of his career and gave him the lead in the Winston Cup points race. Mayfield was second in a 1-2 Ford finish, followed by the Chevrolet of Gordon.
Burton was coming up on lapped traffic exiting the fourth turn three laps after rain began to fall for the second time in the race. Suddenly, the cars slowed, and Burton hit a spinning Jerry Nadeau and then the frontstretch wall.
Burton's right front wheel was turned at a 30-degree angle, and the tire was flat. But he managed to limp around -- the right front smoking badly -- behind the pace car for a lap until the red flag ended the race after 164 of 293 scheduled laps.
The rains ended what would have been a battle between Mayfield and Dale Jarrett, because Gordon also received substantial damage in the chain-reaction crash.